Behind the Wanky
by Kenmura
Summary: QW14! Since their graduation from WMHS, Quinn and Santana are now adjusting to their new college lifestyles. A life that doesn't include each other, until an awkward incident caused by Santana's accidental wrong call, results in the two girls reigniting their high school friendship. (Rating M in later chapters. Based on season 4 events)
1. Chapter 1

**Disclaimer: We do not own Glee, its characters, or its storylines. We are glad we don't have responsibility of that fuckery. lol.**

**The story is co-written by myself and my girlfriend (Kenmura)**

**The story follows the plot of season 4 and therefore begins with Brittana as a couple. A Quinntana romance will be developed as the story progresses. I hope you enjoy! Be sure to leave comments. **

**-DementedPanda**

* * *

Santana looks up at her metallic old wall clock, one eye barely open and a good long second passes before she actually notices the time and realizes she's only got half an hour to prepare for another busy day at Louisville University. She overslept. _Fuck_. Santana jumps out of her bed and runs to the bathroom, strips off of her clothing just as she remembers her promise to Brittany of having a brief _'good morning'_chat. They have been having problems with communication like most other long distance relationship couples, which is exactly why they made an agreement to greet each other at least every morning through Skype. It's not easy at all for them to be apart when they had basically been attached at the hip in all of their high school years and not a single day had gone by without them seeing one and another.

She hurriedly jumps to her PC, opens Skype, scans her friend list names looking for 'Brit-Brit' and clicks the profile to call while looking at the clock on her wall again. In 25 minutes the first practice of the day starts and she cannot allow herself to be late. Unbeknownst to her, she had accidentally clicked another name, 'Bitch', on the list. And before even waiting for the call to be answered, Santana rushes to the bathroom to have a quick shower.

In a narrow-spaced dormitory, empty plastic cups lie scattered on a wooden desk topping dozens of coffee-stained documents that carry words such as 'justice' and 'injunction'. Quinn is nearing the end of a painfully boring all-nighter and with a relieved sigh she takes a final look. She scans her assignment for typos when suddenly a window from Skype pops up, showing the name of 'Santana Lopez' on her laptop screen. _Santana is calling?_

Quinn is definitely surprised to see her long time on-and-off frenemy's name appearing on her screen. Especially at 5.35 AM. Her eyebrows arch in confusion. You know how it is when you got a bunch of "friends" in your messenger but never really talked with them? That's what Quinn and Santana are having.

Quinn considers to ignore the call, because who calls at 5-something in the morning anyway? Not to mention from Skype. But seeing how Santana doesn't give up and cancels the call, her curiosity wins the mental battle. She reluctantly clicks the 'accept' button and a camera screen from the other side shows an empty room. Quinn raises her eyebrows in confusion calling: "Santana? Uhm.. Are you there?", She worries a bit that the other girl may be in some kind of trouble, and waits for several minutes, until Santana steps inside the room. A very naked Santana. Well, covered with a towel - Her hair, that is. Quinn freezes, not knowing how to react. It's not like she hasn't seen Santana naked body before, both of them had been naked in front of each other plenty of times when they had to shower in Cheerios locker room. But definitely never on her laptop screen where every inch of her friend's caramel skin is up for display. Quinn begins to think of herself as one of those horny frat boys who likes to pay a subscription every month to watch a certain porn site. _pft, not that I know anything about those kinds of repulsive activities_.

As she starts to wonder whether or not the call is somehow a mistake on Santana's part, Quinn looks away from the screen, thinking of what to say. She hears Santana rambles on as she dries her hair, in what seems to be a hurry, while facing away from the camera, "Hey, babe. I'm really late for practice… Sorry I just left the call on while I showered but it was necessary to cut time. Isn't it funny how we thought we wouldn't have another cheerleading practice by 2012 and here we are doing the exact thing for the 5th year in a row?"

Quinn realizes that her guess had been correct. The call had been an accident. Quinn concludes that it was supposed to have been Brittany and not herself on the receiving end.

"Uh, San..can you hear me? I think you made a mistake.." Quinn clears her throat as she starts to talk, hoping Santana can hear her. She diverted her eyes somewhere else outside her screen, deep down knowing she can just minimize the camera view, but is reluctant to do so.

"I can't believe I overslept! Carrie will kill me. If you think Sue was bad, you should see how Carrie does her job. She gave us homework! Oh my God, what kind of cheerleading coach gives homework? She made us do a long essay on the history of cheerleading and the impact with economy!", Santana continues to talk while glances to the PC from the side of her eye, enough to see a blonde girl picture on the screen. Quinn can't help but think of the terrifying idea that Sue is only one out of - perhaps many - mentally deranged coaches out there.

Santana walks to her closet, opens the door and bends over, reaching for her training shoes kept inside. Quinn gasps at the sight and frantically tries to minimize the window of the camera without turning off the call. "Santana! Ugh…why can't you hear me!?", Quinn exclaims as she gets more and more frustrated with her clueless friend.

"Anyway, I really miss you, babe. That's why I'm really trying hard to keep our agreement to call each other every morning no matter how busy we are", Santana finally manages to put on her uniform completely and walks to her PC, patting herself internally on the back for having succeeded to prepare in such a short period of time. However it doesn't take long until her eyes finally divert the focus towards her PC screen and that the picture displayed isn't Brittany's, but Quinn's. "What the…", She sprints to the table, and picks up her earphones. "Quinn?"

"Yes. Quinn. Not Brittany, Santana", Quinn makes an annoyed face even though she knows well enough that her friend can't see it.

"Oh my God, I'm sorry", Santana clasps a hand over her mouth while holding back a laughter. "I must've clicked the wrong name!"

"How come you clicked my name? My name started with 'Q', San. That's a long way down from 'B'. Or do you have a very short list of friends? I wouldn't be surprised", Quinn comments before hearing a playful hurt gasp from the other end.

"Well, Quinn, FYI, I actually have a very long list of friends that sometimes it gets confusing. And the reason why I mistakenly called you is because I put your name as _Bitch_", Santana says smirking, making sure she puts an extra pressure on the last word.

Quinn practically rolls her eyes into the back of her head, "Of course it is."

This time Santana lets herself laugh knowing she won this round. "Look, I really gots to go. Got practice that will start like…now", She says, taking her bag as she stands up, and gets ready to end the call. She hears Quinn sighing,

"Next time, leave me out from your perverted online naked show", Quinn feels her cheek blush as the words slip out of her mouth.

"Right…" Santana stops, not sure of what to say, and begins chuckling to hide her embarrassment of realizing that the change in settings makes her camera turned on automatically every time she's on call. It has unmistakably backfired. "Nothing you haven't seen, Q", She says, winking to the camera, before ending the call. Santana practically runs out of her dorm room, knowing she's going to be in a lot of hell for being late.

Quinn sighs and shakes her head, thinking how she actually misses her loud-mouthed fierce friend. Maybe they can actually use Skype to catch up once in a while. _Or_ _maybe not_. Quinn finally decides she needs a good rest. A couple of hours sleep before the first class today will give her the energy she needs for another long day at Yale. She remembers to save her assignment and is about to close her laptop before an idea pops into her head. Quinn re-opens her Skype window, and searches through her friend list for the name of 'Santana Lopez' and edits it to 'Stripper'. _1-1_


	2. Chapter 2

**Hey you guys! Thanks for all of your reviews! We're very excited to have all of you following the story.**

**Be sure to leave a comment and let us know what you think. Happy finals month!**

**-DementedPanda**

* * *

It's Friday night and Quinn walks in the dark hall of her dorm. It's almost 2 AM and most of the lights are off - following the dorm rules. She stumbles on the carpet nearing her room and almost falls to her knees. She automatically holds on to the wall, trying to regain herself. The effect of the amount of the alcohol she'd been consuming in the frat party she just attended, is making her really dizzy. It hasn't been a great day for her, she admits. Quinn forgot to do her assignment for the Criminal Justice class, and is late for her Health Law class, and the actual reason why she's feeling like shit is because the psychology professor she's been seeing cancelled their date, _again_, with an excuse that he had papers to grades. _Bullshit_. She knows he got to come home to his wife doing god knows what. _Not sleeping together for three years, my ass_.

Quinn enters her door room, after having quite a difficult time locating her room key in her purse and just finding the keyhole. She kicks her door shut, throws the keys, before dropping her body down on the bed. She feels like crying, but her sadness quickly turns to anger. Hating herself for continuing to put herself in all kinds of drama. She wipes her tears that are dangerously floating on the crests of her eyes and sits up. She sits in the dark and looks around. Sure, she can't really see her room with the lights off, but she can still see the outline of the things in her room.

Her bed is located exactly next to the door: A single bed that hasn't experienced any action, except Quinn and her own hands. On the left side of the bed, against the wall, is a medium sized desk with her laptop, books and papers on top of it. There are no windows in the 3x4 m2 dorm room, but at least there's a bathroom, so it's not a bad deal after all. She's lucky to get a private room instead the co-ed room. Her eyes catches a golden framed photo with the glee club's kids in it. Everyone looks so happy with the Nationals trophy standing in the middle. She can't even bother to put her family picture. _What family? _She still keeps a photo of her mom and her sister in the drawer though, almost like an abandoned trophy.

Quinn suddenly feels alone and the darkness is somehow too much, so she decides to turn on her laptop for a little light. Her eyes wouldn't be able to handle the room's light for now. She grabs her chair to prop herself up, clumsily sits down in front of her desk, and turns her laptop on. She stares at the screen blankly while it's starting up. Obviously, her intoxicated brain is working more slowly tonight. She continues to stare as her Skype logs on automatically. After another minute of staring at the screen, a name is catching her eyes. _Stripper.. _Quinn can't help but giggle at remembering what happened just three days ago with the whole "wrong call fiasco" thing. _That girl got good ass.. among other things, _her laugh is soon replaced by Quinn looking like a deer-caught-in-headlights as another image violates her head. One of Santana bending over. Quinn squirms in her chair, suddenly feeling really uncomfortable.

Before her brain even registers what she was doing, she clicks on "Stripper", types "Hi" and is pressing enter. Maybe it's the alcohol, it could be the loneliness too, or maybe it's just the anger she's feeling and she knows that Santana has always been a good bickering partner. _Maybe that's it_. She's looking for someone to have a fight with. She waits for a good couple of minutes for a reply but to no avail.

Santana on the other side is actually sitting on her desk too, bored out of her mind and just browsing the web, looking for something to do. Brittany decided to sleep an hour ago after trying to finish her homework with Santana's help. She's surprised to see a window on the bottom of her screen flashing with "Bitch" name on it. She clicks on it and read the message "Hi" from Quinn. Santana frowns, not believing what she's seeing and decides to just ignore the message. _Well_ _that was random._ Not long after, she suddenly gets a call from Quinn and before she's able to do anything, there's Quinn's face - on her screen - staring at her. _Damn automatic call._

"Ha. I knew you're there", Quinn slurs to the screen, giving Santana her best try at a squinted/angry eye, though it looks more like she's just got poked in the eye. The Latina could see that Quinn seems to be drunk. It's obvious from the way she's trying too hard to sit straight.

Santana smirks, "You caught me, Fabray. I'm just not in the mood talking with an alcoholic Barbie. What do you want?"

"I'm not alcoholic. I just happened to get back from a very prestigious student party, and just enjoyed several glasses of good wine."

"From the way you're swaying and slurring, looks like you just robbed a convenient store, head straight to their beverages fridge, slipped and then drowned on their several choices of cheap alcohol", Santana folds her hands to her chest, suddenly interested with what Quinn might do while she's out of her "I'm Miss Perfect" attitude. _I got nothing better to do tonight anyway._

"Yeah, well you look quite beautiful tonight..", Quinn states.

Santana is taken aback with the nice and very unexpected comeback and is startled for a second before managing to reply with a "Thank you?"

"Who would wear make-up like that in this time of hour, seriously. Did you just got back from your pole dancing side job?", Quinn adds with a lopsided victorious smirk.

"Bitch!"

"Slut."

"….."

They both go silent for a second, before Quinn is unable to hold back her smile then blown into a fit giggles, which Santana can't help but reply with her own laughter.

"My God, we should grow up already. What's going on with you, Q? I know you're not the drinking type. Not after the whole wine cooler thing", Santana asks as she wipes the tears from the laughter.

Quinn sighs and just like that her foul mood returned. "I'm fine. Just wanted to have a little fun. I mean here I am, miles from home and all I do, everyday, is studying. A girl got to have a break once in a while", She slumps back on her chair, avoiding eye contact from Santana. Afraid that the other girl would see her lies.

"I don't believe you."

"Whatever", Quinn sways her hand clumsily to the screen. "What about you? How are you doing? Life must be going good for you. I mean, you're doing what you know well. Cheerleading scholarship, right?"

Santana wants to keep pushing for an answer, but instead she convinces herself that she doesn't really care. "Things are okay. I got Sue 2.0 as a coach and even more extra essay assignments. I didn't know college life is worse than High School. But nothing I can't handle", She says shrugging.

Her words result in another awkward silence, neither not knowing what to say. It's not like they were actual great friends in High School. It's all about keeping up with appearances. Even with a slow thinking process, Quinn starts to regret her spontaneous decision to call and Santana begins to get annoyed with her automatic answering call.

"And how about you and Brittany? You both doing okay with the long distance thing?", Quinn suddenly asks.

Santana shifts uncomfortably on her chair, hearing her girlfriend's name. Not because her sexuality has become the underlying subject, but the status of the relationship _is_ and she's been having her own internal conflict about continuing the relationship. Though she will be damned talking about it with the drunk mess, she once called her partner in crime in Cheerios. Santana does _not_ talk about feelings. Period.

"We're doing fine. I go back and forth from here to Lima every couple of weeks to see her and doing my laundry. So we're fine", Santana decides to answer as flat as possible, without realizing that her tone is giving away her feelings on the subject. They have been having a little problem with their quality time, actually. They both have very different schedules and Santana has "needs" which after some time, she has to admit, is getting difficult to just waive it and wait for every other week. She might sound shallow but she can't lie that her eyes had been wandering more freely and with particular intention lately. Not to mention the girls that had been throwing themselves at her when she went to parties.

Quinn raises her eyebrows, sensing Santana's grumpy response, "Okay. Did I just hit a nerve there?"

"You didn't. I told you we're fine. It's not your business anyway", this time it's Santana who dismisses the subject.

"Fine.", Quinn slurs her response.

"Fine.", Santana rolls her eyes.

There's another silent and horribly awkward moment. Quinn starts drumming her finger on the table, looking away from the screen but glances once in a while to look at Santana. She can't see a thing in the dark and that is making her even more pissed.

"Well.. This is awkward", Santana comments while clicking on her screen, starting to browse the internet again absent-mindedly.

"Yea, I shouldn't have called. I thought at least I can be fake-happy listening to you brag about your new college life. Turns out you're just as sad as you were in Lima. Still having problems with opening up, I see."

"Seriously, Quinn? I'm actually surprised you haven't started talking about how bad your love life is. Isn't that your expertise? Who are you cheating with now?"

Quinn is about to retort with a nasty insult before covering her mouth with both of her hands, trying to hold back the bile in the back of her throat.

"Ugh.. San.. I think I'm feeling sick", Quinn manages to mumble through the cracks of her fingers.

"Oh my God. Are you pregnant again?"

"No, I had half a bottle of vodka, you idi-", she says just as the nausea finally hits her hard, Quinn swiftly pulls out the trash bin from under her desk, and empties her stomach on the spot. Puking so gracefully into the bin, on cam, in front of Santana Lopez.

"Oh Hell No. Ew Quinn! You did _not_ just do that on Skype. What is this?"

"I can't help it ok!", Quinn exclaims, still feeling nauseous and still trying to stop the dry heaving.

"Go clean yourself. You disgust me. You're just like your mother, Quinn. No surprise there", Santana says making a face.

Quinn tries to wipe her mouth with the back of her hand and covers her face, "That's funny, coming from the Porn Star who slept with half of the football team." She lifts up her head, trying to look at Santana as the laptop's light is somehow more painful for her eyes now.

"You know what, you're not even ssun!", Quinn says as she drops her head on top of the keyboard, feeling like the world is spinning around her.

Santana rolls her eyes again, "You mean fun, drunk-ass?"

"You're a lousy stripper."

"What?"

"...and still wearing clothes", Quinn continues mumbling as she feels more and more tired. She tries to keep her eyes open but everything around her is so dark. She closes her eyes and drifts off. Puke breath and all.

"Seriously, you need to go to the bathroom and wash your face..."

"Quinn...",

"…Quinn!?", Santana calls out, hoping to wake up the passed out blonde.

"Are you for real?"

Another silence.

"Quinn! Wake up, Slut", Santana curses, wishing she could just throw something at Quinn.

And that's when she hears Quinn softly snoring.

"You've got to be kidding me", Santana covers her face in disbelief.


	3. Chapter 3

**Hey guys, we're back! Sorry for the exceptionally long wait. Life got in the way unfortunately. But we are very excited to be back, hopefully you are too! **_Chapter 4 has already been written and will be out very soon!_

**Most of the credit of this chapter goes to my lovely girlfriend, Kenmura. She is the one who forced us to continue this fic. Thank you so much for your reviews and faves. We really appreciate it, and it's actually what made us write again. **

**Are y'all excited about Glee returning tonight? Let us know in your reviews!**

**Just a head's up, the chapter is slightly more serious than the previous two. We hope you'll enjoy it! **

**-DementedPanda**

* * *

The next morning, Quinn wakes up with a pounding headache. This is familiar.

She massages her neck, trying to relieve a stiff muscle; a result of her sleeping on top of her keyboard. She is about to wipe dry puke off her mouth, when she hears a grating voice.

"Aww.. Look at that, LiLo is finally awake. Good morning, Miss Beauty Queen 2012."

Quinn doesn't miss the mocking tone in Santana's voice.

"Oh my God", Quinn's eyes widen in surprise at her Skype screen, but squints immediately after, as the bright light of her laptop screen hurts her eyes. She raises her hand, to cover her eyes a bit from the offending light. Santana is looking all fresh, much to Quinn's dismay, grinning slyly, as she leans back on her chair with a Starbucks in her hand.

Quinn doesn't know that Santana hasn't actually slept. Santana hates the fact that she needed to be awake until 5 AM, to finish one of her papers, wasting another Friday night. After she was done, she figured that she might as well go on her morning run. It's laundry weekend with Brittany, but her lousy assignment prevented her from going last night; meaning yet another day with her girlfriend has been cancelled.

Santana has a shitload of papers that are near their due date; particularly the one she focused on all night needed to be done. Fortunately, having a passed out Quinn to laugh at and take screenshots of - for future references - during her breaks from typing, helped her stay awake. If she hadn't finished her assignment, it would have completely lost the point of her postponing the trip to Lima. She feels incredibly relieved to have one less problem.

This isn't the first time she has to change the schedule or even cancel the trip over the course of four months since she started college, but she hasn't had much of a choice. Santana hasn't been really enjoying her time in Louisville and that resulting in her not giving her all, to keep up with class and doing things in last second, just so she won't get kicked out. One of these days, though, she fears that it will bite her in the ass.

Quinn looks at the time call display and sees that Santana never ended the call. "Why are you still here?", she asks in confusion.

"Why shouldn't I be? I got first seat to see Quinn Fabray having another massive hangover. I screen captured charming pictures of you, and I kinda don't want you to get choked on your own puke. I feel like I have an obligation or something, for being the last person to see your not so glorious mental breakdown last night. But mostly it was to laugh at you", Santana sips her fresh coffee, smiling, feeling like she's on top of the world having her frenemy look like she just survived a hurricane.

Oddly enough she actually enjoyed the company, even though that company is a passed out Quinn Fabray on a laptop screen. She can't actually count on Brittany's company when it comes to do her papers. The doey blue-eyed blonde is too much of a distraction when she's on Skype. Santana loves Brittany's random remarks and their fun conversations, but the playful girl sometimes doesn't really know when to hold back, when Santana needs to concentrate.

"So..", Santana continues as she crosses her leg on top of the other. "How does it feel passing out on your desk, after barfing in your trash can?", She pauses to sip her coffee. "Oh, by the way, you got some letters, right there, on your cheek, spelled _loser_", She points to the screen, smirking.

"Oh shut up already, Santana", Quinn interjects and presses the end call button, not bothering to continue listening to Santana's mockery. She's completely annoyed with the bitch and the pounding in her head is getting worse. She doesn't really know, if she should feel grateful that Santana kept an eye on her the whole night, or just hate her for using the situation to take some humiliating screen captures. She can only hope the pictures won't end up on Facebook. Yep, Santana can and will go that low if she needs to.

Quinn groans and gets up from the desk, walking slowly to the bathroom to wash her face. She starts to notice the vomit aftertaste inside her mouth. Nearly barfing again. After several messy splashes of water on her face and brushing her teeth, Quinn is ready to spend the whole Saturday riding out her hangover by passing out. This time on her bed.

...

"Rude", is all Santana remarks to the abrupt hang up, but says it with a wide smile on her face. She looks at her watch and it's time for her to pack up and go to the bus station. That means she gets to hang out with Brittany back in Lima and to have some awesome sweet lady loving sex. _Gonna get mah scissor on._

Santana locks her door, walks to the kitchen and finds two of her other roommates, Elaine and Lara Croft, who are sitting by the kitchen island having breakfast. She's been lucky that even though there are three of them living together, they got an apartment type of dorm with two bathrooms, complete with a small kitchen area and living room in the middle. Each of them gets one personal room.

Santana was the first one that arrived at the dorm, so she got the right to choose a room that is singled out, on the one side of the dorm, with a personal bathroom. That makes her have a slighter smaller room, compared to the other two, but she prefers a personal bathroom anyway. She doesn't need to clean other chicks' nasty period shit. Meanwhile her dormies got side by side rooms and have to share a bathroom.

The three have become fast friends, since all of them are sharing the crazy schedule of new recruits of the Ladybirds (U of L Cheerleaders team). Sadly, they are probably the only friends Santana really hangs out with, since she can't always hang out in the weekends with other Ladybirds or other students.

"Yay! Girlfriend weekend?", Elaine looks up from her cereal bowl as Santana drags her laundry bag toward the dorm's door. The ginge is the only openly gay girl that Santana knows personally, so far, in U of L. The girl has been flirting shamelessly, since she first met her at introduction day. Santana got nothing against the girl because so far it's been harmless fun and Elaine is a pretty awesome friend. Well, aside from that one time when she let Santana oversleep that resulted in 5 laps extra from Coach Carrie. Elaine claimed that she tried waking Santana up, but she was running late herself.

Santana's other roommate, Monica aka Lara Croft, just smiles at her. The giant-boobied girl looks very tired. Santana is guessing that she's probably up all night too, finishing her assignments.

"Yep. Don't miss me too much. Bye, bitches", Santana waves at her peasants, before closing the door in a hurry.

On her bus ride to Lima, Santana is doing Kegels to Justin Timberlake when she takes notice of a guy across the aisle, who's appears to be occupied smooching a black lab. The Latina can't help but stare at the pair's intimate moment. After a minute or so, the strange interaction ends; while it never should have started. The dog has covered the hipster's patchy beard with an abnormal amount of saliva. The sight disgusts her and briefly triggers a war-flashback depicting the time she had sex with Frankenteen. It almost throws her off her Kegels game. _This bus ride is taking far too long. _Santana decides to sleep the rest of the trip, and falls asleep grinning as she remembers the sad state of Quinn's hungover face. _That tragic slut._

_..._

Quinn wakes up around 1 PM and although she doesn't feel the need to keep sleeping anymore, she stays lying on her bed for almost an hour. The headache is gone, but replaced by a heavy cloud inside her head. She sighs loudly as a power booster and finally forces herself to get up from the bed. She remembers most of what happened last night and groans again. She's thinking of checking her Facebook but she knows better and brushes it off. The old Quinn Fabray would freak out with anything that would destroy her perfect image, but the new Quinn Fabray, well, not as much. It's a progress, really.

She drags herself to the bathroom and stands in front of the mirror, holding herself on the edge of the sink. She looks at her reflection and sees someone she doesn't recognize. A pale disheveled blonde haired girl with blood-shot eyes.

_What have I been doing? I got everything I wanted and I keep on trying to mess things up with dramatic self-pitying acts of this and that. This has to change. But how?_

A ping from her laptop distracts her from her another self-pitying monologue. She cranes her neck to look at the clock right above the bed and she sees that it's almost 2 PM.

That has to be Rachel's email.

Quinn will never admit this to anyone but she did have a little crush on Rachel back in High school. Something that she pushed aside until the summer of sophomore year, when she joined the skanks. Half of the skanks were pretty much fluid when it came to sexuality and she learned more about herself that summer. Quinn had somewhat of a rough time with coming to terms with her sexuality, considering her very uptight conservative upbringing. Particularly influenced by the year when everyone in the glee club was helping Santana with her sexuality, while Quinn went back to her regular crazy self, making another baby gate drama just to distract herself from her real issues.

After she accepted the fact that she's not only into boys, she toyed with the idea that Rachel might share the same feelings. But Rachel confirmed her feelings were just for Finn, and so Quinn easily moved on. _It was a stupid high school crush anyway. But there was always Santana.._

_Anyway, _the petite diva's perks is still amusing to Quinn and she finds Rachel's antic as endearing. If she tries really, really, _really_ hard not to get easily annoyed. She's not even sure why she even had a crush on Rachel, if she thinks of all the effort not to get annoyed. Thinking about it, makes the girl smile. She's always got a thing for difficult people. Maybe because she is a difficult person herself.

Rachel usually sends her an email every Saturday afternoon. She definitely holds on to what Quinn's said about keeping in touch. She admits to herself that she actually enjoys the emails Rachel has been sending since they went to college. They both have definitely become somewhat good friends because of it.

Neither has been talking about a plan to visit each other, though. It's only been four months after all. Aside of that, it's not a secret that Quinn loves visiting New York. The national trip was too short and she didn't get the chance to explore much of the city.

Quinn takes a deep breath and walks to her desk, before sitting in front of her laptop to read the new email. The short brunette always have something to report, as if Quinn's inbox is her personal diary. Quinn actually suspects that Rachel _does_ use her email as a diary.

**Good afternoon Quinn, **

**I certainly hope you have been having a good week. I am delighted to hear about your achievement to be accepted in the only female secret society at Yale this year. I always much-admired you for all the hard work you do to get your dreams. You deserve all of the rewards from doing so. I know you think we have nothing in common, but I have to oppose that idea and I believe that we, indubitably, are two bright strong women that are cut from the same cloth. **_(That would be scary_)

**As for your question about where do Finn and I stand, in terms of our long lost relationship, **(_I don't remember asking nor caring about this topic at all_.)** I finally got a surprise visit from him a couple of days ago. It did not end well though. I was with Brody, that super hot dreamy boy I saw half naked in the dorm's bathroom the other week, just about to take the next step of our platonic friendship **(_I was right all along. She is obviously not ready for any teen marriage.)_**. Did I tell you that he does the same moisturizing routine as me every night before we go to sleep? **(_You sure he's not gay, Rachel?_)

**Anyway I digress.****I dreamt about seeing Finn for so long, hoping he would one day unexpectedly show up in front of my door with a bouquet and it came true! But he was too late. I was ready to move on and there he was, wanting to come back in my life after missing for FOUR months and did not even had the nerve to inform me where he has been. I have decided that this is it. Right now I am on the right track to pursue my dream, which I've had since I was two years old and nothing, I repeat, NOTHING will impede my way from getting it **_(Oh, Finally.)_**. **

**Not even the most adorable, sweet, handsome ex-quarterback, ex president of Glee club and ex-military hot looking man. **_(My God, Rachel, you need help)_**. On another note, I am going to try out this new relationship with Brody **_(Of course you will choose the gay hunky creep that keeps on stalking you)._** A mature relationship. **_(Does she even know what that actually means?)_

**I might still be unsure about any other things, outside my dreams of being a famous Tony nominated Broadway star, but I'm not going to let some boy define my life. **

**The school has not been easy either. Cassandra is still determined to make me regret ever taking her class. I will see this as just another challenge to my assuredly stardom, of course. **

**Oh, and Kurt is working in now! How amazing is that. He gathered all of his fashion blog pictures and made it into a portfolio for a walk-in interview. He got the job on the spot. It's just a side job though, but he gets to be working for Isabelle Wright. Ms. Wright herself! I am so proud and happy for him. **

**How are you though? And this time you are obligated to give me a reply, longer than two paragraph. Spill it, Quinn Fabray!**

**XOXO**

**Rachel Berry (Gold Star Emoticons)**

Quinn is smiling as she reads the last part. Only Rachel Berry (and sometimes Santana) has the ovaries to order her around. She feels happy too that the email is actually giving some good news about her replies Rachel right away, because she remembers the last time she forgot to reply, she got dozens of SMS from Rachel asking if Quinn is okay and if the brunette needs to call in emergency numbers, when she failed to reply her texts too. To say that Rachel Berry is a very dramatic person is an understatement.

Quinn writes that everything in her college life is great with no boy problems whatsoever. She tells Rachel that she's making a lot of friends from classes and from the secret society. Pretty boring stuff really, but there's nothing different she can tell Rachel from last week.

She leaves out the part of her life, which mentions the fact that she is sleeping with her married psychology professor. Of course she's supportive of Rachel's decision of letting Finn go, and get herself a new direction (no pun intended) in life. That's what she has been trying to tell Rachel since last year, and a freaking truck, ramming the side of Quinn's car, was the only thing that saved Rachel from the biggest mistake of her life.

Right after she sends the email, her phone buzzes. She picks it up, seeing that she has a new message from the aforementioned professor. The text is asking her if she's free tonight. Quinn hesitates for a moment, thinking that this is the guy who lied to her last night about doing some work, when she's sure that he actually went home to his wife.

_**I got plans, Alex. What do you want?**_**\- Q**

_**I just want to spend some time with you. If you got time, come by to my house. My wife is staying at her sister's. **_**\- A**

He sent a Google map address link in the end of the text.

Quinn doesn't reply the text as she is having a battle with herself. Everything about her relationship with her professor is wrong in many ways. He's her professor (_but I'm not underage anymore_), he's married (_they don't love each other), _and she's not even really into this guy (...).

It all started with a little too long of a stare in the class. Then Quinn offered her help as an assistant, which meant spending a lot of time together even though it's not related with the psychology class, and one day, one thing lead to another and Quinn ended up having sex with him in his office a late Friday night. To say that she isn't completely attracted to him would be a lie. He has golden blond hair, pretty grey eyes, white perfect teeth, he's quite tall and he _is_ smart. You can't be a professor in the age of 35 if you're not at least having a determination to get through PhD that young.

Now, throw a perfect idea of a human being in front of Quinn Fabray and be sure she will try anything to get that person to be hers. It is difficult to brush off something that her parents made her believe since she was young. Perfection is _everything._

If she has to be completely honest, it wasn't his looks or much of his academic achievements that made her take that final decision of sleeping with him, but because they somehow share this feeling of lacking _something _together. You know what they say about people who takes a psychology subject; an outpatient on self-study. The sex isn't bad either, because the only experience Quinn can compare it to was that one time thing with Puck.

Quinn takes a quick shower and by the time she puts on her clothes, she decides to go see him.

Alex's place is not that far from Yale. It only takes her half an hour with bus to get there. This will be the first time she's going to his house. They usually just hook up in his office, on the sofa or the table after grading some assignments or exams.

As she arrives in front of her professor's door, she instantly regrets it. She feels wrong about it, but somehow her hand seems like to have a mind of its own, when she knocks on the door. She can hear light steps toward the door, before it opens and there he is.

"I was waiting for your reply but I knew you would come", Alex gives his perfect smile at her. He doesn't even mention that Quinn lied about having plans already. Even worse for Quinn if he's thinking that she changed her plans for him. He lets her in and she follows him to the living room.

He opens a prepared bottle of red wine and pours her a glass. They do this fake conversation thing for a while, because Quinn knows it won't take long before Alex will start kissing her and so he does. He leads her to his bedroom and begins to undress her before starting to kiss her again. Quinn tries to enjoy his kisses, his presence, but she can't help it that sometimes she opens her eyes and another set of eyes are staring back at her from inside of a photo frame. His wife.

It doesn't stop her.

As they finish, Alex takes his pipe from the stand beside him and lights it, while still sitting on the bed. _So cliché_. She looks to the side and there it is again, the wife's photograph. A Flash of her own mother's face violates Quinn's mind. She tries not to think about it, but her own father did this to her mother.

Quinn abruptly gets off from the bed and puts on her dress.

"Hey, what's the hurry?", Alex asks her in confusion.

"I can't do this anymore. I have to go.", She finishes getting dressed and hurries to the door. She feels more uneasy by the minute staying in his bedroom.

"Quinn, is this about last night?", Alex gets off from the bed, still biting the pipe in his mouth. Looking quite ridiculous considering he's only wearing boxers with tiny Freud head motifs.

Quinn turns around to answer him, "No it is not. I don't think this is a good idea anymore and we're done, Alex."

She then walks out as fast as she can and gets into the first bus heading back to her dorm. Inside the bus she feels anxious and flips out the phone from her purse. She sees that Alex doesn't even try to call her, let alone stop her. She's not even sure why she's hoping he will.

Suddenly she just needs to talk to someone and the first name that comes up is Santana. Santana may have not been around for months now, but it doesn't change the fact that throughout high school when things went bad (or sometimes good) for Quinn, the other girl was always there, in her own bitchy way.

Yes, there was that period when she was pregnant and Santana obviously chose her social status rather than their friendship. At the time, she thought it was all about Puck, but she had to admit being hormonal was making her crazier than her normal crazy self. Also having a different schedule outside of cheerios practices, drove the two apart.

Yes, there was the boob job incident, because that was the only way Quinn knew how to get her position back as the captain of the cheerios instantly, and it was a perfect revenge for Santana leaving her when she was pregnant. She doesn't remember when exactly their friendship mended after that. It's just how their relationship works. It's almost like a tennis match, they both feel like things need to be even, after which they both will go back to being frenemies again. Although Santana was understandably getting even closer to Brittany on their sophomore year, she hasn't stopped being Quinn's friend. Or the "The Unholy Trinity" would cease to exist.

She doesn't forget when Santana tried to reach out to her, when she was spiraling down being a skank. Nobody knows that Santana tried calling and texted all through the summer, but she was the one who ignored the other girl.

It was by senior year that their friendship returned to like it was in the beginning. Again, she doesn't remember the exact moment. Santana was horribly outed by Finn but the girl became less of a bitch after. The night Santana was kicked out of her grandmother's house; she actually called Quinn because she didn't think telling Brittany about it would make the situation any better.

Quinn returns to reality from her thoughts. She looks at her phone and hesitates when she scrolls down to Santana's name on the screen. She's not sure if she should just call or text. _No, calling would be too weird. _She's still not even sure why it has to be Santana._ We haven't talked regularly since we went to college and judging from last night another Skype fiasco..._ _Oh screw it._

**Hey. - Q**


	4. Chapter 4

**Bet you didn't expect us back this soon? We are very unpredictable. Maybe next time, we'll be in Africa 2056. Listening to Shakira.**

_The fic will finally get Quinntana together, but no. Unfortunately lions have mauled Kenmura's body, apes have shat on our laptop, while I lay dying from malaria. Who will make it, the last chapter. There's no other way, we have to trust that ape. Good luck all. _

**So many thanks to all the new readers, faves, followers, reviews, but especially we tip our top-hats in gratitude to the group of you, who've been waiting 84 years. We love you guys.**

**If you like it, please review. The reviews serve as our cocaine, a special kind of cocaine- the Quinntana coke.**

**-DementedPanda**

***SPRAYS GLITTER ALL OVER THE FIC***

* * *

Santana arrives in Lima and Brittany is already waiting in the station to pick her up. The tall girl greets her with a tight embrace and a sweet kiss. Santana smiles, "I missed you too".

Leaving the bus station, they fetch Brittany's car and inside, the sweet girl kisses Santana's cheek before they drive towards the Lopez'. Time for another bi-weekly laundry time. Of course the laundry is just an excuse, because the only reason she keeps coming back to Lima every other week is to see Brittany. They easily fall back to their regular routines when Santana's in town. The whole ride in the car, Brittany never lets go of Santana's hand while driving as they catch up with each other. She only lets go when she needs to use both hands to make a hard turn.

Brittany fills Santana in on what she's been doing at school. It's sad that they haven't been able to keep in touch much lately, but both are trying to make up for the times they lost. Brittany talks about the new kids in glee club, the cheerios, and her failing in the school president campaign.

"Aw, I'm sorry that you didn't win, Britt. At least it's another unicorn who won it", Santana rubs Brittany's hand with her thumb trying to make her girlfriend feel better. She feels shitty that she hasn't known about the campaign until now and feels that she should've been there and supported Brittany.

"Don't worry about it. Sam made me feel better right after. I mean, yes, I felt really disappointed but his impressions of people are just too funny. He made me laugh", Brittany throws a smile at Santana.

"Guppy? Why him?", Santana is a little thrown off with this new information. She just feels something's fishy about the whole situation, no pun intended.

"Oh, he helped me with the campaign. I made him my vice president. He's so smart, he knew how to get me out of this stupid funk I had, when I was missing you really badly."

Santana squeezes Brittany's hand. The mentions of Sam being there for her leaves a dark pit feeling in her stomach, not only because she feels replaced in some way, but also because she knows it's her own fault. She can't stop the feeling that Brittany deserves better.

"San, stop loving my hand so hard - my other hand might get jealous."

"Oh", Santana loosens her tight grip on Brittany's hand, not realizing she was clutching to it like a fat kid finding a piece of candy at fat camp. "Sorry", She briefly looks at Brittany, offering her a weak smile.

They barely arrive alive at her parents' place, because of Brittany's insane driving skills. She claimed that she needed to avoid the unicorns on the road. Santana sometimes wonders if her girlfriend is high.

Brittany then parks the car on the street right outside, so she doesn't block the driveway, when Mr. Lopez' returns from work. "I'll help you carry your laundry inside", Brittany takes off her seatbelt and looks at her distracted girlfriend. Brittany is about to ask what's going on, when Santana's phone buzzes on her lap and both of them look at the screen.

**Hey. –Q**

"Is that Quinn? I didn't know you were still in contact with her after graduation."

"We're not. Like last night she drunk-dialed me on Skype. It was hilarious. She barfed all over herself", Santana laughs and shows Brittany the screenshots of Quinn passed out openmouthed, on her phone.

"Scandalous!", Brittany says, looking at the picture wide-eyed, playfully covering her mouth before laughing along with her girlfriend.

Santana opens the message from Quinn, while still trying to control her laughter and as she wipes a tear, she wonders why Quinn would suddenly send her a random text.

As Brittany's laughter fades, she opens the car door and suddenly blurts out, "I miss having everyone around. Back when we could just hangout and not use Skype."

Santana looks at her girlfriend, silently agreeing. Unsure of what to say.

"Uhm.. I'm gonna start the laundry", Brittany says, pushing away her feelings and decides that the sooner they do laundry, the sooner she will have fun times with Santana.

"Okay", Santana gives her a reassuring smile.

Brittany steps out to get the laundry from the back seat, and instead of leaving right away, Santana stays inside the car, brushing off the moment and occupies herself with trying to figure out how to reply Quinn's text.

**Sober yet? –S**

She settles for reciprocating the short text. Guessing Quinn is probably still not lucid seeing how she's sending Santana a random text. She waits for a whole minute for Quinn to reply, before she decides to get her stuff from the back of the car, to drop them in her bedroom.

Meanwhile, Quinn is quite annoyed that Santana just has to bring up last night's Skype.

**No, I needed to down a bottle of vodka after hearing your screeching voice –Q**

In her room, sitting on her bed, Santana is amused reading Quinn's reply. The other girl is biting back, something familiar for Santana to ease into.

**First step to help you through alcoholism is to admit that you're an alcoholic –S**

**Why? Are you volunteering as my sponsor? –Q**

**If it means I get to capture more invigorating moments like last night –S**

**Like I captured the moment where you bended over naked? –Q**

**Surprised to hear you actually got taste, considering your past choices in guys –S**

**Are you admitting that you don't have any taste yourself, seeing how you slept with three of those guys –Q**

**..Well then again, you slept with everyone –Q **

**At least I didn't get pregnant –S **

**Of course, swallowing doesn't get you pregnant –Q **

**You probably should have thought of that sooner, shouldn't you? –S**

**Screw you –Q**

Santana is laughing at the reply, when Brittany enters the room.

"Still texting with Quinn?", Brittany asks as she stands by the door frame.

Santana looks up and smiles at the blonde, "Bantering is the word."

Brittany seems unsure of whether or not to walk into the room and Santana doesn't fail to notice. She gives the blonde a loving smile, as she reaches her hand towards Brittany and puts away her phone. Miss Beauty Queen 2012 can wait.

"Come here, I haven't properly kissed you since I got here", Santana beckons her finger.

Brittany smirks shyly, before walking to Santana, cupping her girlfriend's face, and giving her a deep kiss. Santana instinctively starts roaming her hands under Brittany's shirt, caressing her soft skin, before settling her hands on the blonde's waist, and right breast, where she finds a perky nub to play with. She smiles when she hears Brittany gasp to her mouth.

"You've put the laundry in, right?", Santana asks between openmouthed kisses.

"Mhm and I didn't forget to turn the machine on this time. We got 45 minutes", Brittany pushes Santana slowly down on the bed, without breaking the kiss as she straddles the Latina.

…

Just like she hoped, texting Santana truly is distracting Quinn and she finds that her bus is nearing her stop. After the texts she remembers _why _Santana was the first name that came up. The way their friendship works is; there are no boundaries. Knowing how crazy and dramatic they both can be, Santana's friendship makes things simple and honest. And because of that, they both never seem to realize how they actually help each other. In a strange spiteful way.

She can't say a friendship with Santana has been easy, but the dynamic certainly is. They can go from superbesties to archenemies at the flip of a coin. They hadn't even spoken since that day they sent Rachel Berry on her merry way to New York, but they don't need that extra effort to catch up.

Quinn walks to her dorm and checks her messages, but she still hasn't gotten a reply. She tries to think up another insult to send Santana, before getting into her room. Now it's not as much about distraction anymore, she actually just wants to keep talking with Santana, but can't find anything callous enough to say and keeps on erasing and changing her text.

…

Santana and Brittany are in the middle of a heavy petting session, when they hear the front door open, followed by Mrs. Lopez' voice calling their names.

"Niñas! I brought some foods from Breadstix. Are you girls in the basement?", Maribel wonders after seeing Brittany's car upfront and hearing the washing machine working downstairs.

Brittany and Santana freeze mid-grinding and the blonde abruptly gets up from Santana. She hurriedly fixes her clothes and hair, while looking at her reflection in the mirror.

"We're coming, Mrs. L!"

Santana smirks at Brittany's choice of word, while still laying on her bed, "I bet you were."

Brittany slaps Santana's knee and they both giggle.

"Come on, I bet your mom got Spaghetti!", Brittany says eagerly as she exits the room and practically runs to the kitchen. Santana sits up and remembers her text with Quinn. She reaches for her phone and checks if she got any messages, but doesn't see any. So she sends a text instead, thinking that chatting with her - on and off - friend is not a bad idea.

**I'm just keeping it real. So what are you up to, Quinn? -S**

Quinn feels relieved that she can stop being neurotic on what to text Santana when she got the text. A surprisingly non-bitchy text.

**The usual. Classes, papers, parties, secret society. You? –Q**

Santana walks out of her room and rolls her eyes reading the last activity. She doesn't understand why, even after Quinn gets out of Lima, and doesn't have to answer to Russel, she still has this need to impress everyone. Last thing she heard about that awful man, was that he was kicked out of the house. Fortunately most of the Fabray's possessions are under Judy's name, so things are pretty great for Quinn and her mom (and Frannie) in the monetary department.

She makes her way to the kitchen, still busy typing. She glances up for a second, just to see what her girlfriend and her mom are doing. Brittany is helping Maribel setting the plates on the dining table, while Maribel takes out the foods from the wrapping, to be reheated in the microwave.

**I guess just the same as you, but with extra cheer exercises and less secret society, because I'm actually happy being out of the closet. Something you should do too ;) -S**

The Latina greets her mom by giving her a big hug and a kiss on her cheek, before sitting on her regular seat by the dining table.

Brittany keeps on eyeing Santana with her phone. She knows that the Latina is not really the kind who would care to text with people. _Except for sexting_. Brittany sits beside Santana after being done placing the plates and utensils, waiting for Maribel to finish reheating the Spaghetti.

"How is your college, Santana? Everything is ok?", Maribel stands across where Santana is sitting, pouring some Spaghetti on the plates. Brittany nudges her girlfriend who is still busy with her phone. Santana hasn't been sharing any updates with her parents lately. She actually hears her mother, but pretends like she's still busy with her phone. Maribel doesn't miss her daughter's telling, which is a twitch on her upper lip.

"Is there something you want to tell me?", The older Lopez asks again as she pours the reheated tomato sauce to a large bowl to share.

"Everything is okay, mom. I've been struggling, yes. But who doesn't?" Santana answers her mom in a nonchalant way, as good as she can fake it. She doesn't really enjoy the cheerleading practice anymore, because in high school it was just a way for her to stay on top of the social life. In college the activity turns into a freaking _career. _And even though she's not really bad in classes, she can barely pretend to care when she's not motivated.

_Don't get __me__ wrong, __I'm totally__ grateful to Sue who helped me __g__e__t the damn scholarship, but it's not what I really want._

She doesn't know what she wants yet. Not to mention that this feces has been affecting her relationship with Brittany.

Maribel can see that Santana is keeping something from her, but she knows that if she tries to push it, she will only get a snappy response. She knows Santana will talk eventually if she needs her.

"And you, Brittany, everything good at school? How does being a captain of the Cheerios feels like?", Maribel changes her subject of interview as she sits down and pushes the plate with spaghetti towards Brittany, signaling her to get them first. The question raises Santana interest and she finally sets down her phone on the table.

"I get a lot of singing parts in the Glee club, I have new friends and being a captain in the cheerios is awesome", Brittany's pour some Spaghetti to her plate while talking and her eyes are sparkling with eagerness talking about how good it seems the start of her repeated senior year.

Maribel smiles at Brittany's answer. She definitely feels glad that the blonde's answer is way better, than the last time she asked about college, several months ago.

Santana puts her hand on Brittany's, feeling proud and happy for her. "That's my girl."

Once they're done with lunch, Maribel tells the girls to finish handling the laundry while she will do the dishes.

The two girls brings all the washed laundry to Santana's room to be folded. Santana keeps being distracted, going back and forth between texting with Quinn and folding the washed laundries. Quinn discloses, that she got news about Kurt working in and that pisses off Santana. She's thinking, _Here I am struggling to figure out what I want, while Lady Hummel got into his college of choice and already has a side-job in New York doing what he loves_.

"Santana, can you please stop with the texting and just be here with me? What are you two talking about? Can't it wait?", Brittany finally pouts. The Latina puts her phone down, realizing that she's been a little bit occupied with Quinn but shares nevertheless, or to be exact rants about Kurt's new job and Brittany easily sees through Santana's insecurities, and calls her out about the money Maribel gave her for New York.

Sadly, Santana is not ready yet to admit that she's struggling at college. Especially not after knowing Quinn, Brittany, and even Kurt to be doing well. The thought of her dropping out from college and aimlessly wandering in New York, before knowing what she wants to do, is scaring her shitless. So she lies through her teeth that she loves cheerleaders and college, hoping that Brittany won't catches the gulp in the middle of her sentence.

She is not lying though when she says that she likes to be just a couple of hours way from Lima, so she can still come back and see Brittany. Fortunately Brittany looks so tired, that when the blonde yawns, Santana is able to change the subject. When Santana asks if Brittany is okay, she stops listening around the part where the blonde mentioned a Christian novel about the end of times. That's when Brittany tells Santana, they should go to the afterschool club called "The Left Behind."

…

Everything with Brittany actually goes well. They have their date night at Brittany's house watching The Matrix (Brittany claims that the rolling green numbers on the screen is actually readable and easier to read than the Biology textbook), continue with awesome sex and do a little jog in the morning. They spend the whole day just lying around on the bed, either eating some snacks or snuggling, sometimes both.

Although, things go downhill the next day, after she agrees to join her girlfriend at the freaky Jesus lover meeting that Brittany mentioned. She's not that eager to go back to Louisville anyway and she can probably catch a bus, that will make her able to attend the Ladybirds practice in the afternoon. Besides, there's something about the club makes her worry for Brittany and she wants to check it out.

Santana learns that The Left Behind club is lead by none other than a blonde cheerleader that eerily reminded her of a miniature Quinn on Vitamin D. _Short people are not allowed to lead any group. There's supposed to be a written law about it. What if they need to fetch stuff on a high shelf or something? _

The cheerleader, who introduces herself as Kitty, actually emotionally scars another student by re-enacting the rapture and says all kinds of offensive opinions, in less than five minutes.

What takes Santana by surprise, as the poor student cries on the floor thinking that she hasn't been chosen to be lifted into heaven, is Brittany dropping a bomb on Santana when she tells her:

"You don't get it. You left me behind and it hurt."

Santana feels like being slapped. But she understands what Brittany means, because leaving Brittany has been just as painful.

The drive home becomes unpleasant as their talk turns into an argument.

"We only have less than two days together this weekend and you're not even trying to make up all those times you cancelled! Yesterday you were busy chatting with Quinn."

"Brittany, it's Sunday night and I'm still here. We've been hanging out for two days now. You have no idea the things I have to juggle in college. And don't even bring Quinn to this, yesterday was the first time she texted me after months in college."

"If you didn't forget our Skype calls and actually shared your problems with me, I would know instead of making time for other people." There is a pause before Brittany continues in a defeated tone, "Things have changed, Santana, and I'm feeling really alone."

Santana doesn't have any response for that because she knows Brittany is right. Her girlfriend misunderstands about the little time she spent with Quinn, but then again she hasn't even told Brittany about that girl in the library. _When did going back to Lima become a job? _

The rest of the journey home is filled with silent tension. When Santana drops off Brittany at the Pierce's, she promises to visit her girlfriend tomorrow to resume their talk. She gives Brittany a goodnight kiss and goes home with her mind occupied, thinking how everything with Brittany just doesn't work the way they want it to.

She parks her car inside the garage and after making sure everything is locked, she gets in to her house, through the connecting door to her kitchen. She finds her mom sitting in the living room watching some reality show.

"What's wrong, Mija? Are you fighting with Brittany?", Maribel looks up when she hears Santana throw the car key on the kitchen island, and finds her daughter looking like she's going to cry.

Santana takes a deep ragged breath and Maribel tells her to sit beside her. The young Lopez walks to sit on the sofa, beside her mother, before hugging her, "I don't think our long distance relationship is working for us, Mami."

Maribel hugs her daughter and rubs her back as Santana starts crying. She knew this would happen sooner or later. Having a relationship is already quite difficult for people their age and the long distance seems to make it even more impossible.

"I'll take out the ice cream pint from the fridge and let's have a girl talk, okay? And maybe talk about your college too?" Maribel offers, feeling even more worried, knowing that Santana is not going back to Louisville today for her classes tomorrow.

"I'll agree just on the girl talk, because I'll need more than a pint of ice cream to make me talk about college. Don't worry, Mami. I'll figure it out. "

Maribel smiles at her daughter, who's evading another college talk, but she's not surprised. She remembers that Santana didn't really like the idea of Louisville and wanted to go to New York, but at the last minute, something changed Santana's mind and she still enrolled to Louisville. She let her daughter keep money in case she would change her mind. Maribel got a feeling that her daughter is actually scared of taking the big step to figure things out as an adult. She wants to help, but Santana doesn't seem to want to open up.

Santana lets her mother get up from the sofa to get the ice cream. She finally knows, what she need to do about her relationship with Brittany, but it doesn't mean that it's going to be easy. Not one bit.


	5. Chapter 5

**Hey guys!**

**We'd like to apologize for the horrible delay of this fic update but you can totally blame DementedPanda's schedule.**

**I have actually written down at least the (very) rough draft 12 chapters of this fic but of course, I need DementedPanda's awesome brain to make this fic complete. What we can promise you is, we will definitely finish this fic, even if it will take 10 years (DementedPanda's words, dont hurt me. Hurt her XD).**

**As a token of our apology, here is the longest chapter yet of the fic and we hope you enjoy it. There was less fighting this time when we edited the chapter LoL**

**Please R&amp;R, the more you give us critics or comments, the faster I can bribe my gf to do her parts. Also because we really appreciate your enthusiasm and they always make our days better. Cheers!**

**-Kenmura**

* * *

It's been a week since the break up and Santana is sitting on her university's field bleachers, taking a break from cheerleading practice. It's been hell of a week to say the least but only the Ladybirds' practices can take her minds off of the break up. The U of L's cheerleaders are known to be some of the best cheerleaders in the state and have won numerous consecutive National Championships. The team wouldn't be winning all of those championships with just normal practice and for an ex-Cheerio like Santana - it's nothing new. That doesn't mean it's any easier for Santana, seeing how Coach Carrie is indeed more demented than Sue Sylvester herself.

The Ladybirds are having their break, sitting on the bleachers, chatting away with each other as Santana's mind wonders off, thinking of what happened last Monday. She went to McKinley as she promised and broke up with Brittany. Of course the blonde didn't take it well and it hurt Santana to see her best friend crying - because of her - but the break-up went more smoothly than she expected. _I guess Brittany knew what was coming too. _

Quinn had texted Santana again last Thursday night, asking if she had watched The Silver Linings Playbook. She remembers thinking how Blondie couldn't get any more random than that - getting an actual text about some movie from Quinn as well enduring a conversation with the blonde that mostly consisted of Quinn's psychology mumbo jumbo. _Freud is a repulsive pervert. _The highlight of their conversation happened, when Santana had casually compared Quinn to Jennifer Lawrence's character, with an emphasis on their shared volatile behaviour; a comment that turned their semi-neutral texts into another battle of insults.

Babbling about a movie with Quinn reminds Santana of junior year, when there was only the two of them - doing everything together. Mostly evil plots of how they would keep their reign in McKinley. The two have never really talked about personal things; it's just not who they are, but Santana has always enjoyed their shallow small talks about the latest movies, cheerleading, and music. Occasionally Quinn would quote a book she just read, which was strangely endearing, but mostly nerdy and therefore _should and would _always be followed by mockery: It was completely justified. Besides, she knows it's Quinn's way of showing off the fact that she reads more, _let's be real,_ s_tory books are for uglies_ and Santana only reluctantly tolerates Quinn's tendency to nerd in private.

She used to be the one to distract Quinn with parties, foolish decisions, and small but memorable moments, whenever she had sensed the other girl was being too stressed. In return, Quinn had intuitively evoked Santana's ambition whenever she had been taking things too lightly. A part of her misses it.

They might resemble territorial alpha wolves and their friendship could be seen as a clash of power, but miraculously they balance each other out.

Santana's lost in her own thoughts when Elaine intentionally brushes her hand against the Latina's lower arm.

"Daydreaming about my boobs again?", the girl playfully whispers in Santana's ear. Her breath is tickling.

Santana's caught off guard and her neck hairs are standing, but playfully responds back anyway, "Hey there, carrot-top. If I were daydreaming about you, I'd be daydreaming about your goddess-like sculptured ass and not your boobs."

Elaine chuckles, before putting her palm against Santana's forehead, "Are you okay? Since you visited Brittany you've seemed sorta off, like in a bad mood."

Santana groans her disapproval. Not that she minds the direct contact. However, she'd rather avoid the girl's question all together.

"I broke up with her", She admits, figuring she'd have to tell her friend sooner or later anyways.

"Oh, that's too bad", Elaine pulls her hand back and feels genuinely sorry for her friend. "How are you holding up?", Elaine asks again. The answer is obvious but Santana appreciates her concern.

"From what you just said, I guess not well at all", Santana manages to tug a smile.

"Well, you should've said something. I would've suggested a few physical activities to take your mind off of it."

Santana's voice catches in her throat before Elaine playfully rolls her eyes, "Physical activities like running the field every evening or accompanying me to the gym. What were you thinking about?" The redhead asks, feigning an innocent expression.

Santana looks at the girl unimpressed but amused, "You're unbelievable", she states just as her phone decides to go off. She doesn't recognize the number displayed but answers the call immediately, "Yes?"

"Uh, Hi. Santana?"

She recognizes the voice of an overly grown toddler right away, "Speaking."

"Yea..This is.. Finn. Finn Hudson? Um, I hope I'm not disturbing you." Only Finn would actually feel the need to remind another ex Glee club member of his existence.

Santana pinches the bridge of her nose. _Oh my God, now what? Did I miss a letter about a McKinley reunion week?_

"You are. I'm very disturbed that you're calling me. I assume you need something, so spill. What do you want, Whale-A-Saurus?"

"Gee, Santana. Nice to hear you too. I see that college hasn't changed your habit of name calling people. Anyway, you're right I have a favor to ask. If..- you don't mind."

Santana starts to feel annoyed by Finn's typical uncertain tone. If there ever a right time to call her, now would be very far from top of her list.

"I hear that even military school failed to succeed in manning you up, Ham-Beast. And yes, I _would_ mind. Your pre-pubescent-like insecurities are already getting on my nerves."

"But, you haven't even heard what I'm going to ask you."

"I don't have to, because you annoy me. I would rather sit through all of the High School Musical movies than listen to another word coming through your mouth-breathing trap."

Several of Santana's friends are now intently looking at her with raised eyebrows. She knows how spiteful she sounds. They probably think the guy is the biggest asshole on earth, from the way she's talking, but they haven't really seen much of Santana's bitchy side.

"Yea, okay. But, this is about Glee club."

At the mention of the Glee club, Santana stops herself from wanting to just end the call. She has to admit that Glee Club had been an important part of her life throughout the years. Particularly when she considers the friends she's gained.

"I'm listening and make it fast."

Finn doesn't waste time, knowing that Santana won't hesitate to hang up if he doesn't manage to interest her.

"I'm back at McKinley helping Mr. Schue with Glee club. They're planning to do a Grease musical but something happened to our Rizzo. So I'm wondering if you're interested to fill in the part."

Santana is confused; how Finn is suddenly involved with Glee club again is a mystery to her, yet she still can't care enough to find out why that is, and instead focuses on the favor, "So, let me get this straight. You guys are doing one of the best musicals ever, but from all of the kids that currently attend McKinley, you actually asked _me_, an alumnus to play Rizzo."

"Yea. Exactly."

Santana can imagine that dopey expectant smile on Finn's face right now. She glances at Elaine when the redhead mouthes, "_Musical?_" with a surprised expression.

Santana ignores Elaine and gives Finn a faux moment of silence to think, obviously not wanting to seem too willing. "Brittany's in the play too, right?"

"Yes", Finn knows this will be in his favor, despite being unaware about the girls' recent break up.

Santana knows it's not a good idea to come back again to Lima so soon, especially if this means she will be seeing Brittany in Glee practice, but she's going to play Rizzo. Her favorite character in any musical, _ever._ "Fine, Finnessa. I'll do it for Brittany."

"Awesome! Mike and Mercedes are coming too. I promise you that this is going to be fun."

"I don't care, Hudson", Santana answers immediately attempting to feign apathy. Because seeing her other friends too is an added bonus. _I did miss a letter about reunion week, didn't I?_

"Right. Well, thanks anyway. And when can you schedule to visit Lima to rehearse your part? The opening night is really close actually", Finn's voice trails off in the end, feeling unsure about the inconvenient schedule working for Santana.

"Depends. When is the opening night? Also, one, you will be paying my expenses going back to Lima. And two, you don't tell Brittany. I'll tell her myself when I get there", She stands up when she hears Coach Carrie screaming on her megaphone, calling the cheerleaders to get back to practice. She runs down the stairs telling Finn that she has to go.

There was a brief moment of silence when Finn heard about paying expenses trip, but he realizes that he doesn't really have a choice. "Cool. We'll be in touch then." Santana imagines the grin on Finn's face before she ends the phone call.

Elaine touches Santana's shoulder to get her attention when they're finally on the side of the field, telling the Latina, "I don't think it's a good idea to return so fast while the wound is so fresh", before she turns around and runs into the middle of the field, leaving behind an anxious looking Santana.

…..

It was barely 9 o'clock on a Friday night and Quinn had almost finished all of her assignments. She even finished the two papers that are scheduled to be submitted next week. Since middle school, she discovered that burying one-self in school assignments is the best kind of distraction, and at the same time, it satisfies the perfectionist in her. The difference between school and college is, after the accident, her back really can't handle sitting for hours in the same position all tensed up.

The last couple of weeks have been quite exasperating too, even though she already ended things with Alex, she's still his assistant in psych class and for obvious reasons, she can't just drop out of the class or stop being his assistant. It will damage her psych grade. It's one of the things she wishes she had thought through, before impulsively choosing to sleep around with her professor.

There had been a close call, where he caught her off guard and kissed her, but she managed to stop it before it went any further. She had been feeling fat again that night, but this time, there was no wine cooler to blame. She reminded Alex that she wanted their fling - or whatever it was - to end. Alex initially seemed to back off , then after several meetings he began to make inappropriate advances again; brushing his hand against hers on the desk, sitting too close, sending personal texts. Quinn can't really do anything than ignore him. He's out of line and she wants to tell him off. However, she can't afford the university finding out about their affair.

She's remained active in the secret society and still finds it amusing how easily she got accepted. The group makes her feel like she belongs, which is lucky considering there is nothing more important for Quinn Fabray than to feel accepted, somewhere, anywhere. One of the new pledges, Harriet, has become quite a good friend of hers, even outside of the secret meetings they do once a week.

Her train of thoughts is distracted by a notification box on the bottom screen popping up, "Stripper is online". She bites her pen, feeling a sudden urge to call Santana, - just because. Anyways, she needs a reason to stop being a loser, who's only burying her nose in textbooks.

She clicks, "call" without really thinking and it only takes about five calls before Santana's face shows up on her screen.

"Hey", Quinn greets the Latina, her voice succeeds in maintaining a rather indifferent tone.

"Hey, you. So is this going to be a thing now?", Santana casually asks.

Quinn observes the dark-haired girl who moves to sit in front of her laptop. Santana looks dressed up, like she's ready to go out.

"What thing?"

"You calling me on Skype anytime you want."

"Last time I called was weeks ago", Quinn makes a face. She's not going to make Santana think she needs her around or anything.

"Yes, but you've texted me every other day since", Santana deadpans. She's not wrong. They have been texting each other quite a lot in-between classes. Well, a lot if Quinn is comparing their interactions to the girls' last year in high school. It's become a habit of theirs, turning casual conversations into text-offs containing nasty, but humorous insults. Somehow, Quinn always sends the first random text. A fact Quinn is completely aware of. Besides if the other girl didn't care, she wouldn't even have bothered replying.

The other day, Quinn was fortunate enough to find a tiny dead ladybird inside of her salad in the cafeteria, and automatically sent Santana a Snapchat with the picture of it and a text saying, "Is this you?". Santana, on the other end, had let out a small smile, somehow not disliking that the other girl had thought of her when discovering a dead animal inside of her lunch. Santana was amused with the excessive amount of crap Quinn would talk about, and would always return with snarky and witty comments.

"Will it be a problem then?", Quinn bites the inside of her cheek, challenging Santana with a look.

Santana is tempted to say "Yes" just in spite, but she doesn't mind at all. She likes it? Quinn's random texts are quite entertaining. And the idea of them being friends again isn't completely appalling. She hasn't failed to notice Quinn's weird distraught behavior, and chooses to ask indirectly, "So..any particular reason for you to call?"

"Not really", Quinn states as she absentmindedly starts to write on her paper again, which she doesn't realize; her defense mechanism working at full force. Santana's face-cam is still on a small window, but she doesn't pay much attention to it. Unconsciously, however, Santana's presence feels a bit as a " security blanket".

"That's not an answer, Fabray. And if we're gonna do this thing, you need to actually look at me", Santana spits out and sits back on her chair, crossing her arms.

Quinn takes a deep breath, fidgeting on her chair for the fifth time since she started the call. She finally looks at the face-cam before answering. She doesn't really like to talk about her back pain, because the usual response from people has the kind of sympathetic tone that makes her feels uncomfortable.

"I'm too...jiggy. I need to calm down", Quinn makes up a quick lie.

"Jiggy?" Santana tilts her head, can't help remembering the naughty definition of the word.

"Yea, like that song 'Getting jiggy with it, nananananana...'" _Oh God, now I remember why I try to stop being a liar. I say all the stupid things._

The Latina raises her eyebrows and almost snorts, "I know what jiggy is. Did you just make a reference to a Will Smith song?"

"Oh shut up, Santana."

"So what's that suppose to mean? Are you horny?"

Now it's Quinn's turn to raise her eyebrow.

"What? It's what the word means.. Google it", Santana defends herself, still grinning widely.

"It's not that. I mean, somehow I can't sit still and I seem to end up finishing _a lot _of my papers whenever I return to my dorm", Quinn shifts again on her chair and decides to grab the pillow from the bed, propping it behind her and using it as a back cushion. She then continues to type on her paper, hoping Santana won't start to pry her about the actual reason.

Santana eyes her suspiciously, "Are you using? Has the great Quinn Fabray become a coke-head?"

"God, Santana. You actually think I would do drugs, let alone snort coke?"

"..Coming from the girl who dyed her hair pink, got a nose ring, joined with The Skanks losers and got the Ryan Seacrest tramp stamp in senior year? I don't even wanna know what other freaky shit you've done behind our backs", Santana throws her hands up in disbelief.

"Touché", Quinn's unconsciously touching where the nose ring was.

Santana chuckles briefly, then tries to guess yet again, "So what you're trying to say is you're hyper?"

For a moment it seems like it is the word Quinn's looking for, "Right, hyper. But it's not that either."

Quinn sighs before giving in, "I'm.. frustrated."

"Because..?", Santana probes. The brunette knows if Quinn has symptoms of an ADHD pre-schooler, there's gotta be something on her mind that she can't shake off.

"I don't want to talk about it."

"Wow, not predictable at all", Santana exhales. "Alright, I know what can make you feel better."

Quinn frowns to Santana's face-cam. She remembers the last time she heard Santana utter those words and how she completely embarrassing herself by thinking the other girl was offering some kind of sexual activity. Which, to be perfectly honest, wouldn't be the worst thing to have happened. Minus Brittany in the equation at least.

Santana takes off her denim jacket and Quinn quickly responds over her best judgment, "Whoa there tiger, I've told you once that I'm not that into that."

Santana laughs as she rests her denim jacket on the back of the seat, then stretches her arms together in front of her, "You are so full of yourself, Quinn. I was just got back to my room when you called me and it's beyond hot in here. I feel like I just made out with Hades. Anyway, here's what I meant."

Santana types something on her laptop, clicks some things and pastes a link to the chat window. She thinks Quinn could use some distractions too tonight.

"What's this?", Quinn clicks on the link and the browser opens to an online mini games page. "Oh my God, Santana, you're such a loser. Are you seriously telling me to play computer games?"

"You can call me a loser, Barbie. But if you lose over this game, I have all the rights to call you names, as you officially got your sweet ass owned by no other than Santana Lopez", Santana puts on her best smug face. She definitely knows how to push Quinn's buttons and she knows that Quinn will never _ever_ back down from a challenge. Especially if it's against her.

And exactly like Santana predicted, Quinn looks straight at the camera, feeling incredibly challenged, "Oh it's _on_, Santana. Now tell me how we're going to do this." The blonde straightens her sitting position.

"It's pretty simple actually. All you have to use is the mouse to move around the little people. The red clothes will be yours and the blue ones will be mine. Here's the catch, you can only control the right leg and I'll be controlling the left leg. The Q buttons to insert the balls to the right circle and the W to insert the balls to the left circle."

"How is this a competition when you can sabotage my turn by not moving your leg? Why are there two circles? And wow the mouse is very sensitive to the movements."

Santana rolls her eyes before continuing, "I'm not done explaining, Quinn. One of the circles will light up and that's the circle where we have to put the balls in. Yes, we're going to have to work together on the legs, but the movements will be completely on our own. Hence the sensitive mouse you talked about. The scoring will be based on how fast you can get the balls in by helping your opponent. You get that?"

Quinn is listening intently while looking between the screen, the mouse and the keyboard, trying out what Santana just explained to her. She just hums Santana a confirmation that she understands.

The first round begins, it's Quinn's turn and the little red person keeps on falling off flat on it's face because, turns out, controlling it is very difficult. Especially when Santana is not doing her part on moving the left leg.

"Stop cheating and move that damn leg", Quinn snaps at Santana.

Santana grins, watching as Quinn is still trying to excel at the mechanism of the game.

The blonde dramatically looks up at the face-cam, her expression unmistakably annoyed by the game, when she sees Santana smiling at her, "What?"

"Nothing, I'm enjoying your frustrated face."

Quinn rolls her eyes before focusing back to her screen and her keyboard. "I'm so going to kick your ass in this, Lopez."

…_one hour later_…

"PUT IT IN! NOW! OH GOD, SANTANA! DONT STOP PRESSING IT!"

"NO! WRONG HOLE! RIGHT THERE! FOLLOW MY LEAD, FOR GOD SAKE, FABRAY! YES! THAT'S IT!"

"NO! YOU HAVE TO LIFT UP YOUR LEG FIRST! JESUS! YES! YES!", Quinn yells excitedly as Santana manages to drop the ball in the correct circle and they both end up laughing.

Quinn fails to notice that they have already been playing the game for more than an hour. Every time Santana has managed to obtain a score higher than hers, she just couldn't give up. She's completely forgotten whatever was hovering in her head an hour ago.

"Damn, Quinn. You just have to win, don't you?" Santana comments, still focusing on trying to make her character move forward to the light up circle.

"You were the one who challenged me. You knew how this would end."

"Hell, I was just trying to cheer you up", Santana presses the Q button but fails to drop the ball under the time limit.

"Yes!" Quinn fists the air when she sees the ball rolls over. The other girl only throws Quinn the stinky eye for a split second, before directing her attention to the game again.

"You do realize you are the one who just lost a point right? Again.", Santana is practically growling when she says it. She doesn't realize that she's just as competitive as her blonde friend.

Quinn is suddenly surprised by a knock on her door.

She doesn't really want to answer the door, but from the volume of her last outburst, she can't possibly pretend to be out or sleeping.

"Hold on. Someone's on my door", Quinn gets up, ignoring Santana's whine; muttering something about the game and how it cannot be paused. She opens the door and sees Ashley, a friend of hers whose room is across from her own.

"Dear, I know you're having one of the best nights of your life, but can you tone it down a bit? It's pretty loud", Ashley says half whispering.

"Oh, I'm sorry, Ash. I didn't realize I was that loud. I guess I was too excited", Quinn says apologetically, finally realizing the disturbance she made.

Ashley peeks inside, specifically glancing to Quinn's bed, and says with a smirk, "So where is this Santana guy? Is he in the bathroom?"

"What? Oh, no, Santana is not a guy. She's an old friend from high school."

Ashley's face emits a clear show of surprise, until she lightly punches Quinn on the arm. "Wow, I wouldn't have guessed that you play for the other team. Now I _need_ to see the girl."

Quinn frowns, beyond confused by the other girl's comment. It takes her a couple of seconds, when it finally sinks in what Ashley had meant, and she's about to clear it up when Santana's voice from her laptop cuts her off, "Fabray, can you just tell whoever your guest is to scram, because my hands are seriously starting to cramp now. I need to even the score."

Ashley's eyes darts to Quinn's laptop and her eyebrows jumps under her blonde bangs, "Whoa..I didn't even know that cyber-sex could be _that_ exciting. She's hot by the way. Now I'm just gonna let you go back to your girlfriend but keep it a bit down this time, yeah?" The girl waves at Quinn and walks back to her room.

Quinn stands in utter shock; mortified at the incident. She covers her face in embarrassment, feeling her cheeks burning. Ashley's last comment had caused certain mental images to pop up in her mind. Her face is flustered, and she's surely unable to say anything that would help her. She locks the door, walks over and sits back into her chair and scowls at Santana.

"What?", The brunette asks half-heartedly, she's is completely oblivious of the incident and continues to rant; saying how Quinn intentionally walked away when it was Santana's turn to score a point.

"I demand a re-match, but not tonight because my wrists are hurting", Santana massages her right wrist as she speaks.

"Fine. But it's obvious that I won this round", Quinn sighs still recovering from the heat that had crept up her neck and to her cheeks. If Ashley had heard them, it's safe to assume the girls' whose rooms are located on each side of her room had too.

"By cheating."

"Look at the points, Santana. I keep getting a higher score, because I was always able to drop the balls faster than you."

Santana laughs before answering her, "Damn right you always do."

"Very mature", Quinn deadpans.

"Okay, I'm sorry. I'll be waiting for our next match", Santana smiles.

"How do you even get these games? This is more like Brittany's thing."

Santana's face visibly fell upon the mention of her ex-girlfriend, "Yea, it is Brittany's thing. We like.." _liked_, she almost adds a 'd' to the word, too aware of the word's past tense, before continuing "..to play once in a while when we're talking through Skype."

"How is she?", Quinn notices the change in Santana's bearing.

"She's doing really well. She's the captain of the Cheerios now and is getting more parts in Glee club. Which, frankly, is about time."

Quinn nods, and an awkward moment passes by, neither knowing what to say, until Santana informs Quinn that she broke up with the taller blonde.

Quinn is genuinely surprised, when she hears Santana blurt out the words. If there were a couple from Glee club that she considered actually having a chance of lasting, it would be Brittany and Santana.

"I'm sorry to hear it, Santana."

She won't pry the reason of the break up because it's not her business. "It's weird though. Rachel finally broke up with Finn too, though we all know that relationship should have ended at least two years ago. It's like everyone can't wait to move on from high school. It's only five months since we graduated."

"Five months is enough to know if a relationship works out or not, Quinn. But how do you know about Rachel so much? I mean, I'm happy for Rachel. It's just about time before Finn will go overboard on his self-pity now that he's unemployed." Santana appreciates that Quinn is not pushing her to talk about the break up. Which one of the things she likes from the blonde. They both just know when it's time to shut up. When their emotions are in check, that is.

"Oh, Rachel sends me this weekly update about her and Kurt through email", Quinn flips her hand non-chalantly; casually failing to mention that she responds the emails weekly too.

"Interesting. Of all the people from high school, you stay in touch with Yentl? You really kept that promise with her, huh?" Santana remembers the last time they hang out together and talked about how they think college life will be, Quinn mentioned that she and Rachel are going to try to keep in touch, even as far as getting a train ticket for the animal sweater lover. Santana always suspected there's something more about it that Quinn just wouldn't admit, but brushed it off whenever Quinn jumped to her newest boy toy.

Santana visibly shudders at the thought of Quinn getting freaky with the Hobbit.

Quinn shrugs, "She's more tolerable through emails than in person. At least with email you can pause and have a break from her rambling."

"Amen for that. I mean knowing you, I already have a preview what it's like to be a friend of a yapper. I mean, Jesus."

"What is that suppose to mean? If I'm a yapper, you're not any better Santana Lopez."

"Pft, yea right. I rarely say more than like, two sentences when I talk to people. I know how not to waste people time."

"It's because you only have the brain to form two sentences at a time", Quinn says lazily while looking at her fingernails.

"I swear, Quinn if you're here right now, I would already slap you."

Quinn only respond with smirk. "How do you know Finn is unemployed by the way? Isn't he in the army?"

"Oh I saw him when I was back in Lima. He was helping the Glee club with this Grease production. Apparently his army days are over because he shot himself on the foot. No surprise there. He's fine though. He doesn't need to borrow a wheelchair, in case you're wondering." This time Santana is the one leaving out the detail about her being part of the production.

The Glease show was a success and she had a great time. She only needed to go back to Lima once (paid by Finn) right before the opening night. Things had seemed too normal being around Brittany, it was so fast since their break up and neither had any desire to mention it.

Up until the show started at least, when Brittany approached her behind the stage. The ditzy blonde hadn't just mentioned about how she missed her, she had also propositioned the idea of the two getting back together. Although it killed Santana, she turned her down.

She had sung her big number and channeled her emotions through the lyrics, with a glance at Brittany, realizing that she had to move on and she couldn't keep holding on to the past. Elaine was rarely wrong and this was no exception.

"Wait, weren't you in that show too? I just remember Rachel mentioning it in the email. You were playing Rizzo's part and she said, I quote 'Even though it wasn't a particularly memorable performance, but she did hit every note sufficiently.'" Quinn's question brought Santana back from her thoughts.

"Hey! Considering I only practiced the night before the opening show, I did brilliantly. And that hairy loud-mouthed dwarf needs to learn when to shut up", Santana states grudgingly with a grimace.

"I'm sure you did great, Santana. You've always nailed your part", Quinn admits, sporting an honest smile at the brunette, who's taken aback a bit and is oddly flustered by the other girl's genuine compliment. Santana rarely receives compliments from Quinn and when she does, she feels accomplished, in a sense. Santana loathes feeling second in command, although, if Quinn Fabray is the one behind the wheel, she might just tolerate it, seeing how it's basically it's Jesus himself - _herself_.

The Latina stretches before getting up and lie on her bed. She moves her monitor's camera so it's facing her.

"Tired?"

"A little bit", Santana puffs her pillow under her head so it feels more comfortable. She can feel her tiredness catching up on her fast.

"Just one more question then. I'm wondering, on Christmas holiday, maybe we could hang out? I can stay in Louisville, knowing that you've been going back and forth Lima a lot. If you don't have any plan that is", Quinn adds quickly.

If Santana is surprised with Quinn's idea, she doesn't show it, "Sure. That could be fun. I mean, I guess there are worse things than listening to your non-stop blabbering. And no, I haven't got any plans for Christmas."

"I just don't want to stay in Lima too much. The upcoming Thanksgiving will be enough for family time."

"I know what you mean."

Judging from Santana's effort to keep her eyes open and the dragged out replies, basically muttering her words, Quinn expects the other girl to pass out fairly soon. She knows Santana and a tired Lopez is far from being able to make a coherent conversation soon enough.

"Aren't you suppose to change or clean up first?"

"Too tired and I showered earlier."

"Gross."

Santana ignores the other girl as her eyes drop - glued together.

"I'm gonna let you rest then. We'll talk about Christmas later."

"Mhmm." Santana lets go a yawn and waves weakly to the camera. She doesnt even have the energy left to reach to the keyboard on the desk to end the call.

Quinn waits a moment and watches her friend's features softening, the rise and fall of the brunette's chest displaying that her breathing getting heavier, suggesting that she's already asleep. Quinn thinks how silly it is that Santana Lopez, of all people, is the one making her feel a little bit better that night.

"Goodnight, Stripper", the blonde whispers, a small relaxed smile forming at the creek of her lips. She then clicks the red End Call button.


	6. Chapter 6

**Holy shit you guys. We are alive. Ha. So sorry for the long ass wait, (again it's my fault, it usually is ;) )but we hope it's worth it. Really you guys are the best readers a fanfic writer could hope for. *wipes a single gay tear***

**Who'd thought a slow burn could be this slow, aye?**

**Again, thank you so much for reading! Hope you enjoy**

**-DementedPanda**

* * *

Thanksgiving this year falls on a Thursday and most colleges turn the holiday into a long weekend for the students. This is particularly good news for the Ex McKinley Glee club kids who have promised to return to Lima for the holidays. It means they actually have days to spend together to catch up as well as visit their friends who are still seniors in WMHS.

It doesn't really come as a surprise that Finn's the one who sent emails to the alumni about the holiday reunion. Although, half of the graduates don't know that Finn's the Glee Club's substitute teacher while Mr. Schue is away.

Only, Santana is quite suspicious of Finn's intentions. She's pretty sure he's got a favor to ask, like the last time she went to Lima. _That giant man-baby is trying to be sneaky. _

The email invitation clearly states to meet up at the auditorium, so it's the first place Quinn goes to when she arrives at the school.

On her way there, Puck is the first of her friends she sees in the hall. The boy kisses Quinn's cheek and gets a warm hug in return. They walk together to the auditorium while catching up on each other's lives post-graduation.

Puck has been attempting to pursue a career as a scriptwriter, ever since he found out that the pool cleaning business in California is a very competitive job.

So it turns out Puck is dumber than she gave him credit for. _Wow, it's not as if there is an abundance of scriptwriters in Cali as well. Yea, he'd have little - if any - competition._

Aside from his _minor_ flaw in assessment, Quinn can't really fathom his choice of career knowing that the boy can barely spell beyond 6th grade.

Their discussion then moves on and they talk about Shelby who's notified them that she and Beth have moved to New York, so they've agreed to visit her sometime next year. The thought is still bittersweet.

She's come to terms with Beth being raised by Shelby. Still, seeing her little girl again scares Quinn. What if she doesn't remember her own mom? What if Quinn decides that she wants her back again?

But it also makes Quinn excited. She thinks about Beth every day. She does want to be a part of her life.

The two of them walk into the backstage area of the auditorium and Quinn feels nostalgia rush through her as she remembers every single performance that has been carried out in this room. It feels like ages ago, when in reality, their graduation was barely six months ago.

Quinn's not sure why, but she steps onto the stage and starts singing. She misses how amazing it feels to express herself through songs and to perform in front of people.

She should be a little bit weirded out when she starts singing in the auditorium and suddenly one by one her friends show up and join her singing, however it has happened so many times in the past that Quinn just brushes it off. Besides, at least two Glee club members, Rachel and Santana, claim to be psychic. Although, that doesn't explain the impeccable timing of the band kids _and_ Brad. Nor does it explain why the AV kids - apparently with an unlimited budget - keep decorating the stage for a single performance. Quinn has rarely seen them actually put on the decoration. _When do they do it?_

She's pulled out of her train of thought when Puck joins singing with her, and she reaches out her hand and they both sing together. Then Mike and Santana show up and the dark-skinned girl waves at Quinn, smiling.

Quinn automatically returns the wave, she's thrilled to see the other girl. They have been on several Skype calls since game night, but mostly it either consisted of them playing random online games or studying in silence.

Listening to Santana's voice - when the girl joins her in song - reminds Quinn of how beautiful the girl's voice is. It doesn't help that Santana is staring back at her as she sings effortlessly, making the temperature in Quinn's body rise and her cheeks warm.

Of course Quinn is happy when she sees Mercedes showing up too, even if she reacts a little delayed, it's simply that she momentarily loses sight of anything or anyone else in Santana's stare.

She has wondered a bit - well maybe not _jus_t a bit, Quinn actually thinks about it a lot - if something could ever happen between her and Santana.

When the Latina is doing the backup voice for Mercedes' part, Quinn can't help thinking, _God, her voice is amazing._

"Home for the holidays, just like we promised", Quinn says after they are done singing their kumbaya's.

Before Finn gets the chance to make an emotional comment, Puck warns him and asks for a group hug. Santana steps forward first and not surprisingly hugs only Quinn and Puck. Quinn doesn't care even try to do an actual group hug and goes straight for Santana's waist, wrapping her arm around the other girl and holding her tight. _I really do miss her._

The group decides to go to Breadstix to catch up with each other. The girls are with Quinn and the boys are with Puck, because they were the only two who used a car to McKinley.

Quinn is driving her old sedan and Santana sits shotgun. The whole drive to Breadstix, which doesn't take a long time, is basically filled with either Mercedes talking with Quinn or Mercedes talking with Santana.

The two ex-Cheerio co-captains are somehow still being a bit awkward with each other. Both are not quite sure yet on how to behave in each other's presence.

Quinn looks at the rear-view mirror to address Mercedes, "You seem happier. You must have been having a lot of good times in L.A."

"Well, turns out what people say about the west coast is true and surrounded by mostly nice people is actually good for my mental health."

"Hold up. Are you saying that we're not nice?", Santana asks.

"We all know it's better that I don't answer that question", Mercedes answers with a grin which is being returned by Santana's and Quinn's chuckles.

"Mercedes might change but I can't believe you're still driving this piece of junk, Quinn. It should be in the National Museum of American History already. Right beside the original script of declaration of independence", Santana pats the dashboard.

"The declaration of independence is in the National Archives Museum, Santana. Get your facts right", Quinn states flatly.

"Why should I when I have a Yalie as a friend", Santana pokes Quinn's cheek playfully before being swatted. The Latina doesn't miss the slight smirk on Quinn's face.

"You both definitely haven't changed", Mercedes chuckling on the back seat.

…

The group of alumni are finally at Breadstix, seated in one of their big booths, finishing their dinners.

"Has anybody heard from Rachel or Kurt?" Santana asks, aware that Quinn is one most likely to respond. Although she's mistaken. Finn quickly answers with a brief, "No".

Mike then reveals that Blaine has been trying to text Kurt with no replies.

"Well, Rachel emails me. She said she's not really sure what to do for holidays yet. I'm sorry for what went down with the two of you", Quinn says, addressing Finn, who replies that their break-up is for the best. Quinn cannot agree more.

"Well, I think that it's sweet that you and Rachel are keeping in touch, Quinn." Mercedes suddenly gives Quinn a knowing smirk. Santana is the only one that catches the look and wonders if Mercedes knows something she doesn't. Mercedes of course doesn't know anything about Quinn's old high school crush for Rachel, but she is sure that for whatever reason, the ex-leader of celibacy club had make an actual effort to be friends with the annoying diva.

"Well, she basically emails me every other week to remind me that I haven't used the train ticket she gave me. I'm just, I'm trying to keep straight A's and I got tapped to be in the only female secret society at Yale. Former members; Hillary Clinton, Jennifer Beals..", Quinn brags.

If there is a thing as rolling your eyes without actually rolling them, Santana's doing it right now. She watches Quinn, seeing the old insecure Fabray again who needs to lie and show off in front of other people.

First of all, it wasn't Rachel who gave Quinn the train ticket, it was the other way around. Santana remembers that Quinn told her.

Second, there Quinn goes again about the secret society. _How secret it can be if she keeps talking about it?_

Santana can't help but get annoyed at the fake Quinn she's seeing sitting across from her. She knows the girl is already getting everything she wants and yet it seems like it's never enough nor does it ever seem to make her truly happy with herself.

Quinn doesn't behave like this with the Latina, not in the past few months they've been Skyping. She's toned down. Dropped the act, at least most of it.

Quinn catches Santana's eye and knows that the other singer is bothered.

Puck then drops his ice tea to Quinn's glass of water as some sort of a "gift" while congratulating her, "You go, girl" and makes everyone laughs. Santana can't help but join the others laughing.

"Well I for one would like to talk about everybody that _is _here. I've a favor to ask", Finn says once everyone stop laughing.

_Ah there it is, _Santana thinks as Finn starts talking about the Glee club.

…

The next day, everyone who is - or was - a Glee kid is in the choir room. The graduates are either sitting or standing in front of the room, facing the current Glee kids.

Santana chooses to sit on the piano, right beside Quinn. She sees Brittany and offers the blonde a smile.

Finn then speaks out to the whole room, saying that the alumni of the Glee club are legends, and even goes as far as suggesting that any one of them could be the president of United States someday, which understandably causes some confusion among the kids.

Then he explains that the graduates are willing to help the Glee club as mentors to prepare the sectionals performances.

Finn pairs up the old glee kids with the new based on how who he thinks can relate to one another best:

The Puckermans are paired up because _duh, _he knows that they've been bonding_. _

Kitty is with Quinn because Finn actually got a threat from Kitty after the Cheerios found out about his plan. He cringes when he sees Kitty being too excited and gives Quinn a surprise hug.

Mike is with Ryder.

Unique with Mercedes.

And finally Marley is paired with Santana (Finn actually don't think they can relate but they were the only pair left).

Quinn intercepts Finn's explanation about mentoring by mentioning that she'll even help about birth control. That's when Kitty laughs too excitedly, "You're so funny and self-deprecating. We're so much alike."

Quinn tries - hard - to contain an expression of horror from showing on her face. This girl is obviously a fan of hers and she wants to keep it that way, even though she feels a little bit startled.

"Wanky", Santana chimes in - looking at Kitty and smiling creepily. Santana thought the Kitty she saw in the Left Behind club was the full extent of mini-Quinn's craziness, but seeing the short Cheerio practically hump Quinn's leg, the Latina realizes that she needs to raise the bar higher on her crazy meter.

"Quinn, I know you get off on this "being worshipped" thing but she's underage and I don't want you to become the next Jimmy Savile", Santana whispers to Quinn.

Quinn rolls her eyes before countering, "You want to switch kids? I know you prefer blondes."

Santana mock gasps, "Quinn Fabray! I'm _flattered_ that you notice."

Both of girls hold back their laughter while trying to keep up with Finn's prattle.

Finn finally decides to separate the girls' and boys' practices, because the boys are more clueless while the girls are faster in learning the dance movements. So he and the other boys went to the auditorium and the girls stay in the choir room for extra mentoring.

Santana and Quinn drag a few chairs, placing them in front of the new kids, facing them. Brittany joins them in the middle with her own chair.

"I just want to say that other than the two fabulous New Direction's stars Kurt and Mercedes, I'm always impressed of how classy the three of you every time you all are on stage", Unique starts.

"Thank you. We know", Santana smiles at her.

"Along with being beautiful, the three of us are national championship goddesses", Brittany adds, half sitting on the chair's back.

"Mhm. We are the winners. Which is why Finn has asked us to come and shower you with the inspiration that is the unholy trinity", Santana makes a hand gesture, presenting the name of three of them, given by the WMHS students. Brittany copies Santana's hand gesture while Quinn nods in agreement.

"Santana, Brittany and I knew each other so well that I could tell by the slightest quiver of Santana's upper lip which way we were gonna move. Whether our hips were gonna shake or shimmy", Quinn explains.

Marley raises her eyebrows on the mention of Santana's lip and hip. Kitty on the other hand is nodding eagerly, recognizing it as one of Sue's tricks for the Cheerios to keep the squad as a collective when performing.

"Now, you girls have to be _tight _up there. Okay? The judges _love _the feminine quality and The Warblers just don't have it", Santana doesn't waste a second before adding.

"It's about being individuals. You know we all different, but it's also about synchronicity", Quinn finishes with a smile.

"Can you give us an example?", Marley speaks up, wanting to see exactly what are these graduates talking about. The other kids look pretty excited with Marley's idea.

"It's been a few months but I'm sure the three of us could put together something on the fly", Quinn looks at Santana and raises her eyebrow trying to send a message while Santana looking back is feeling a little bit confused. She doesn't remember they have prepared anything.

The three of them get up from the chair and Brittany mouthes the name of the song to Quinn and Santana in excitement. The shorter blonde confirms it with a nod and a smile, and Santana finally understands. Quinn is trying to make it look like they are able to put up an impromptu performance. It's the Glee kids, they're stupid enough to believe this.

Quinn walks to the band and asks them to play the arrangement of "Come see about me" by The Supremes. The number is something that they have prepared back when they auditioned for Glee club. It was an alternative number in case Mr. Schue hadn't been impressed with their "Say a Little Prayer" number, which would have been ridiculous. But the new kids don't need to know that. It's just adding the effect of how awesome the Unholy Trinity are.

The three of them are about to stand in position when Santana whispers To Quinn, "I'm not sure I remember all of the dance moves."

Quinn gives her a side glance and whispers back, "I'm not either. But like I said, you can watch my hip and I'll watch your lips and I'm sure we both can cover the whole routine smoothly."

Quinn smiles at Santana and something about Quinn's sentence makes it feel a bit like the blonde's flirting, but Santana's not really sure. She's been hanging out with Elaine too much.

They definitely don't have to worry about Brittany because once the girl memorizes a dance move, it will never be forgotten.

The unholy trinity does the number pretty smoothly for something they haven't practiced for years. Santana does forget several little parts and follows Quinn's suggestion on watching her hip. Though it does help to read each other's movements, Quinn's hip were more of a distraction than a cue for the next move.

Similar thing happens to Quinn on the last part of the number. When she sing the last "I love you only" line and automatically moves her head to look at Santana, she catches the other girl's eye and down to her lips which results in her almost forgetting her next line. Thankfully she gathers herself quickly and remembers that she only has to repeat the title of the song and ended it with a long "Ooh". Quinn is painfully aware of how annoyingly hot her friend is when she dances and sometimes it just catches her off guard.

Santana at the same time catches Quinn's eye movement and feels a bit thrown off herself with the girl's hazel eyes, resulting in the Latina forgetting the last part where she is suppose to hold on Quinn's upper arm.

Of course no one notices and gives them excited claps when they finished the number.

...

Later that day, after hours of dance rehearsals, Santana steps back into choir room, where Quinn just finished giving Kitty some suggestions.

"That bitch is pure evil", Santana spits out just as the tiny blonde exits the room, and cutting straight to the chase as the Latina stands right across from Quinn by the piano.

"I think she's sweet", Quinn states defensively. Obviously the blonde will defend Kitty after a whole day of hearing the Cheerio praise her non-stop.

"Really? Then why is she giving my girl laxatives?", Santana challenges Quinn. Marley had confessed to Santana that Kitty has been giving her laxatives.

"Your pretty little liar gave them to her. I can sense it thanks to my psychic Mexican third eye", Santana points to her forehead where the third eye supposedly is.

"See, this is what my Psych professor calls projecting. You're projecting Kitty on to me", Quinn obnoxiously says, attempting to lecture her friend while she unconsciously drags her fingers along the surface of the piano. The movement of Quinn's fingers sliding over the piano catches Santana's eye. The Latina's first thought briefly contemplates what else Quinn's fingers are capable of, before she realizes that Quinn hasn't stopped yammering and Santana needs to listen before she's caught staring.

"-It's really time to get over this", Quinn looks to the side just to emphasize how bored she is with their arguments.

"Get over what?", Santana asks confusedly as she folds her arms on her chest.

"You being jealous of me", Quinn answers with a mocking hushed voice as if it's an embarrassing truth.

"And why would I be jealous of you? And please don't tell me it's because you're in some lame secret Nazi sorority."

"Look, homecoming weekend I went to Jodie Foster's clambake and that professor I was talking about, well, he's thirty five, smoke a pipe. Well, he's divorcing his wife who hasn't touched him for three years. I'm dating him." Quinn doesn't know why she needs to lie about her relationship with Alex or the stupid clambake meeting, but at the moment she feels like they are the only other things outside the secret society or her academic achievement that she can brag about.

At first Santana is confused with the Jodie Foster part, because she does recall that the woman is a lesbian and it needs a couple of seconds for her to understand that it's Quinn showing off _again _about something related to the brunette's sexuality. Santana could have laughed at the idiocy of it all, but she is far too angry.

"Twitter update! Quinn is all excited about another guy defining her life."

Quinn is actually offended with Santana's remark, but she manages to show composure. She moves forward and rests her arms on the piano, making a challenging pose at Santana. She knows by the scowl on Santana's face, she has pushed a button and even more sure that her best friend is in fact still jealous of her life.

"And what do you excited about? Shaking pom-poms in Kentucky? I think you want everybody to think you're a badass, but really you're just a scared little girl with low self-esteem who's too frightened to chase her dreams", Quinn's being ruthless and hitting Santana right where it hurts.

Santana's furious with Quinn's comeback, despite recognizing that the girl is actually saying the truth. The bitch is mocking Santana's own insecurities, the ones' she's been fighting for months.

So the Latina retorts, with the best way she knows how, more insults. A low blow that she knows _always _shakes Quinn up, "Did Professor Patches teach you that one in between quickies on his office couch? Does he get _so _turned on by teen moms who barely visit their kid?"

There was only a second gap between Santana seeing Quinn's face changes and the blonde's hand swinging to the point she feels a sting on her left cheek. Automatically, she is slapping Quinn back just as hard. She's ready for whatever Quinn will throw at her when Brittany shows up at the door and asks what they are doing.

They both probably could have resume to a more dramatic physical fight if Brittany hadn't been standing there, judging them with a cautious look. The situation feels incredibly Déjà vu.

"Nothing. Nothing at all", Quinn takes a deep breath to control herself and fixes her hair before walking out of the room a bit wobbly. She needs to get out of there. She hates it when Santana can see right through her facade and makes her lose control.

Santana would be lying if she wasn't a little bit turned on from the fight. "Quinn always was a genius slapper", she says it to herself as she touches the stinging spot on her cheek.

Brittany walks closer to Santana. "Did you both fight again?"

"Nothing new, Brit."

Brittany touches Santana's cheek and can still feel the warmth left by the slap. "Does it always have to be resolved with violence?, She asks.

"What is?"

"Your tension."

"What tension", Santana looks at her confused.

"I'm worried the more Quinn hits your head, the slower your brain works."

...

Santana finds Quinn sitting on the bleachers inside the gym hall and walks towards her. Even with all of their arguments she still feels compelled to hang out with her friend. Fighting is just a part of their friendship. She then sits right beside the blonde and the two spend some time in silence, watching the athletes practice.

"My relationship with Alex, the professor, was over weeks ago. I don't know why I even lied about it", Quinn suddenly speaks up.

There is another moment of silence, before Santana finally responds, "I _am_ being a chicken right now. I do want to let go the scholarship and find something I'm happy doing."

Both knows their admittances are as close as an apology they'll get from each other, and it's enough for now.

The mood of between them changes and another silence moment appears, though this one is comfortable.

Santana eyes Quinn and watches her play with her phone. She grabs it from the blonde's hands, to Quinn's surprise, and opens her inbox, reading some of the messages from Alex.

"Do you not watch Pretty Little Liars? _Never _ever date someone with name started with the letter "A". Look how creepy the texts are with the signature; "Thinking of you - A", Santana shudders at the thought.

Quinn frowns at Santana incredulously, before snatching her phone back. That's the second time Santana mentions Pretty Little Liars today.

"You're obsessed with the show."

"The lesbians in it are quite hot", Santana shrugs, with a smirk on her lips.

Quinn quirks her head at the brunette, smiling as she says, "Happy Thanksgiving, Stripper."

Santana grins widely, looking back at the other girl, "Happy Thanksgiving, Bitch."


	7. Chapter 7

**Ayyyyyy. We figured it'd be best if we gave you guys two chapters right after each other. Ya know, as an apology for the long wait. ;)**

**Hope you enjoy!**

(Btw This chapter is a personal favourite of mine.**)**

**-DementedPanda**

* * *

Quinn puts her bag in the cabin compartment, before taking a seat. Luckily the stranger who's going to sit beside her is not on board yet, so she can easily get to her window seat. She buckles her seat belt and takes out the phone from her jeans to type a text to Santana.

**I'm boarding and hopefully will be in Louisville Airport at 10 pm. You'll be picking me up right? – Q**

**Yep. I'll pick you up with my roommate, Elaine. She's got a car. So where are you keeping your sex toys? – S**

**What are you talking about? – Q**

**You know, in case your plane crashes and you don't want your mom to see it –S**

**Jesus, Santana. I don't have any – Q**

**You're just making this difficult for yourself – S**

Quinn rolls her eyes before ending the call as the stewardess starts walking through the aisle checking every passenger to get ready for the flight. Her eyes scan the ticket, checking - once again - the return date, which happens to lie on the day before Christmas. The blonde starts to feel worried if it's a good idea at all to spend a whole week with Santana. They have never done this before, even when they were still hanging out a lot together. Afraid of ripping each other's heads off. They didn't even do sleepovers. Except if you want to count Cheerleading Camp. But knowing that her other choice is staying in Lima with her mom and Frannie (plus husband) far longer than she's able to withstand, she's just going to make the best of it.

She looks outside her window and appreciates the blue sky on the horizon that slowly darkens. Her final exams' week just finished today and now her fatigue finally weighing down on her. If she had chosen a flight tomorrow, she probably wouldn't have the energy to get her ass up to the airport. Might as well do it today, get to Kentucky, and finally have her long-due rest at Santana's.

...

It doesn't take a long time for Quinn to spot Santana when she gets out of the arrival gate. She waves at the dark-haired girl who returns her wave. She can feel the wind outside is slightly warmer than most winter nights in New Haven, but she's grateful that she's already prepared with a shawl.

"Hi", Santana hugs Quinn before offering to carry her bag. Quinn lets her because it's actually quite heavy after the seven-hour flight drained her. She did try to sleep aboard the plane, but kept waking up every hour or so due to neck and shoulders cramps, adding to her feeling of fatigue.

"That's Elaine. We'll be using her car. It'll take about five minutes to get to the Uni", Santana introduces the redhead to Quinn as the girl scurries up the parking lot and catches up with them. The two roommates sandwich the blonde, each walking by her side.

Quinn offers her hand, "Hi, Elaine. I'm Quinn. Thank you so much for the car. I hope Santana is not forcing you to do it."

"Hi. It's my pleasure. I know it's a bitch to take a half an hour train from here after a long flight. Besides, Santana said that you're a very pretty girl", Elaine shakes Quinn's hand but not letting it go while smiling at the blonde. Quinn gives Elaine an appreciative smile, even though she can feel her cheeks warming up from the compliment.

"Careful, Quinn. Elaine is a registered sex offender", Santana reaches out over Quinn to pull their hands from of each other.

"I call dibs", Elaine says to Santana who looks back at her with a frown. Acting as if Quinn isn't in the middle of them.

"She's off-limit", Santana says coolly while flipping her hand dismissively on the air.

"Why? Are you taken, Quinn? Or is there anything going on between you and Santana that I should know about?", this time Elaine looks at Quinn who is strangely entertained with the conversation. The blonde definitely finds Elaine funny.

"Not that I know of", Quinn smirks as she plays along with the red hair playfulness. They reach the car and Elaine opens the lock with the car remote.

"You're not even gay. That's what I meant", Santana scoffs to Quinn before putting the bag in the backseat and enters the passenger side. Santana doesn't really believe that, but as long as Quinn never said otherwise, then it is what it is.

Quinn enters the backseat before answering, "Aren't you a little a bit presumptuous, Santana?"

"Ooh…interesting", Elaine squints at Quinn before getting into the driver seat and punches Santana's arm playfully. When she gets a glare from Santana, she raises her hands up and ignites the car, ready to return to their warm dorm. The blonde's reply lingers in Santana's head throughout the whole ride.

It is pretty cool of Elaine to offer Quinn a ride, because the trip to Santana's dorm building is literally only five minutes from the airport by car. The short trip is mostly filled with Elaine asking questions of Quinn's feelings towards being a student at Yale. Quinn also learns that the U of L finished their final exams a day before hers. All of them are obviously ready to have the year-end break.

She compliments the dorm after seeing how big the place is compared to her own. She is given a quick tour by Elaine while Santana puts Quinn's bag in her room.

"So there you go, the whole place. Except Monica's room in the corner because she's already gone back home for the holiday", Elaine says.

Quinn stands by the kitchen's island as her eyes scan the whole dorm a second time. "Thank you again, Elaine", she smiles.

"No problem. Now I'm gonna crash. In case Santana is making you bored, feel free to bother me in my room", Elaine says with a wink before walking back to her room.

Quinn turns around and finds Santana standing against the door frame, watching.

"I'm sure you're exhausted. I've put the air mattress beside my bed and it's being pumped right now. You can shower if you want, or just wash up and go to sleep straight away", Santana offers.

Quinn exhales dramatically and massages her stiff neck before walking to Santana's room, "Yea, a hot shower seems like a good idea."

"I prepared a towel for you in the bathroom. It's the white one."

Santana lets Quinn enter her room and unplugs the pump machine after it's done finishing it's job. It's a little a bit stuffy inside her room now because the single mattress is covering most of the floor. She decides to busy herself opening facebook, while Quinn takes a quick shower. When Quinn's done, she's only wearing a towel, looking for her sleeping shorts and shirt in her duffel bag that Santana put near the closet. She groans as she gets up from bending down, and massages her painful neck again.

Santana turns around, eyes leering not-so-subtly at her friend's body. "Plane seat?", she asks, clearing her throat.

"Yeah. It's all the tense muscle from exam week and _then_ wrong position in the plane. Just perfect", Quinn complains.

Santana moves to sit on the edge of her bed and calls Quinn to sit on her air mattress, "Come here. Let me help you with that. Just sit down and let my fingers do the magic."

The blonde doesn't need to think twice to take Santana's offer. The Latina has been known to be an expert in sport massage therapy when they were in the cheerios. So she throws her sleeping clothes to the mattress and tied up her wet hair before sitting down, facing away between Santana's legs.

Santana takes her pain reliever gel from the desk and spreads some on her finger. She always keeps it ready so she can use it after every painful exercise. She starts massaging one of Quinn's shoulder and putting more pressure where she can feel the other girl is having the tensest muscle. "It wasn't this bad this morning", Quinn winces. She then uses her other hand to massage the other shoulder at the same time and slides her hands upward to Quinn's neck.

"How are you so good at this?", Quinn manages to speak with her eyes closed, enjoying Santana's hand doing her thing. She enjoys how Santana's fingers expertly change between hard knead on her tensed muscles and just lightly putting pressures every time she reaches the back of her neck.

"I'm practically an expert on your body."

"What?", Quinn's eye shoot open.

"I mean, you know, with all those sprains and cramps you had in Cheerios, I get familiar with what works on you", Santana answers quickly, hitting herself in the head internally for blurting out something that sounded stupid like that. She can practically feel her under-boob sweating. You don't think things thoroughly when you have Quinn Fabray half-naked between your legs.

Quinn smiles, noticing the uneasiness in Santana's voice. Soon she can't help starting to moan when Santana finds the right spot on her neck where she feels most tense. It just feels so good. Painful, but good. Santana swallows, hearing the little involuntary noises that Quinn makes. And it's all because of what her hands are doing to the other girl.

"Wow Lopez, you definitely don't waste your time!", Elaine suddenly yells from outside the door, surprising both girls in the room.

"Shut up, pervert!", Santana throws her pillow and it bumps her door. She can hear Elaine laughing.

Quinn chuckles and gets up, feeling that her stiff neck feels a bit better. "Thanks, Santana," She smiles appreciatively before getting her sleeping clothes and turns around to take off the towel. Something she's used to do in Santana's presence after years changing together in the Cheerios locker room.

The difference now is that Quinn has a very visible surgery scar along her spine and it makes her put on the clothes in a hurry.

"Don't mention it", Santana says as she lies down on her own bed, catching a glimpse of Quinn's naked back before diverting her gaze elsewhere.

Unfortunately, Santana doesn't fail to notice the scar and something in her chest tightens, remembering the accident that happened only a year ago. A flash of a bruised and broken Quinn in the hospital bed makes her uncomfortable. Santana and Brittany visited Quinn a couple of times when the girl was still unconscious, but the moment she woke up, she didn't want anyone to visit. Santana feels like she needs to say something but pushes the thought away.

Quinn knows that it's impossible for her friend not to see her scars but there's nothing she can do about that. She only hopes Santana won't try to talk about it. So she doesn't waste time dressing up, throws back Santana's pillow and immediately lies down on her mattress after turning off the light.

The room is thankfully warm enough that they don't need a blanket but the temperature in the room feels colder than it actually is. The tension of an unspoken thought from both cause it.

"Night, Santana", Quinn manages to say before letting her body ease up to the slumber she needs.

"Night, Quinn".

...

Quinn wakes up the next morning feeling more rested. She's happy that it's the first time after months that she doesn't have to check for the time and can do whatever she wants for the next week. Well, _planned activities_ of whatever she wants. Which she knows will be a reason to argue with the sleeping Brunette on the bed above her. But that's not a problem for hopefully another hour.

She gets up carefully and checks on Santana, who is curling up in her sleep. Apparently sometime during the night, Santana took her clothes off out of pure habit. Quinn stares at the familiar silky tan skin, thinking how she's never seen it this close. It only takes a moment before she realizes that she's being a creep and decides to get some breakfast.

"Morning", Elaine greets her as she closes the bedroom door. The chirpy roommate is already sitting by the kitchen island table with her bowl of cereal.

"Morning", Quinn replies with a polite nod and sits right across Elaine. She's thinking that the dorm is not a penthouse, but she can imagine even with three girls, the dorm is actually pleasant to live in.

"So, what's the story between you and Santana?", Elaine inquires.

"Um.. We were co-captains of our high school cheerleading squad", Quinn answers with whatever comes to her mind first. There's "Frenemies", but she doesn't want Elaine to think that they're unfriendly. She wants to say Nemesis too, but then that means Santana is unbeatable and she's sure that she can kick her friend's ass if she needs to.

"Funny. That's the exact answer Santana gave me when I asked the same question. Sounds pretty cold to be honest. But acquaintances don't spend their Christmas holiday together", Elaine comments while continuing her breakfast.

Quinn gives a sheepish smile, "It's complicated."

Elaine laughs at her answer but the blonde realizes how her answer come across, "No, it's..try Deadpool and Spider-man."

"You don't look like a Marvel girl", Elaine raises her eyebrows, surprised with Quinn's choice of analogy.

"I'm not one of those comic nerds, but I know enough basics after watching their movies", Quinn immediately clarifies after looking at the redhead's expression.

Elaine squints at the girl's reply. There's no Deadpool movie.

"So, who's who?"

"She's the sassy one and I'm the crazy one", Quinn answers with a proud smirk. Elaine snorts out her drink upon hearing Quinn's self-deprecating comment.

"What about you though?", Quinn feels compelled to ask back. The Latina never told her that her roommate is into women.

"Oh, if you're asking if Santana and I ever had sex, the answer is no. But I wouldn't mind tapping that," Elaine smirks.

_I wouldn't either._

Unfortunately their conversation is cut short when a grumpy Latina roughly opens the door, "Could you be any louder? I couldn't hear you in my peacefully sleeping state."

Quinn rolls her eyes and slips off from her seat, feeling a little annoyed, she actually had more questions that she wanted to ask the redhead before they were so rudely interrupted. "I'll make you a coffee, grumpy face."

Santana grunts in response, walks to the kitchen counter and starts making instant pancakes, while Quinn grabs the Latina's WMHS mug and fills it with coffee. Quinn then walks to the refrigerator and takes out the low fat milk carton before pouring the liquid to the coffee mug.

She comes back to sit across Elaine with the coffee and not long after, Santana slides her a plate with two layers of warm pancakes, complete with a spoon size of peach jam on top and maple syrup dripping. The Latina then takes the mug from in front of Quinn and sips it in silence. All these were being watched by an amused Elaine with how these two girls just automatically knows what's the other preferences for breakfast.

Quinn glances up to catch Elaine's expression and somehow feels her cheeks warmer. Being in a cheer camp for a month forces them to know these things about each other (and tag team on breakfast when someone is late). Elaine raises one of her eyebrows and that's when Santana looks at her, then Quinn.

"What now?"

"Nothing. By the way, I have to inform you that we have a reservation on the Waverly Hill Sanatorium tonight", Quinn speaks while enjoying her pancakes, not bothering to look at Santana.

"Did you just say _reservation_ on a _sanatorium_? Do you have a disease I should know about?", Santana dramatically makes a step back while raising her palm up.

Elaine's face lights up. "That place is totally cool. When I was there, I keep seeing something in the corner of my eye. It was _freaky_."

Santana's face turns in horror. "_What in the name of Xena_ are you girls talking about?" She asks gayly, feeling fairly worried.

"Duh, just one of the most haunted places in America if not the world. Closed in the 80's and now it's a tourist place", Elaine explains excitedly to the dark-skinned girl that's looking paler by the second.

"I've paid for our tickets because I know you'll act like a 4 year old about this", Quinn points her fork at Santana before smiling at Elaine, appreciating a fellow admirer of the place. She has always been a horror buff and one of the main reasons for her to go to Louisville is being able to visit the infamous Sanatorium. Santana will never admit that she's a wimp when it comes to paranormal stuff but after being friends with the raven-haired girl for years, Quinn _knows_.

On numerous occasions during their movie nights, Santana always found a reason to choose another genre. She doesn't even want to watch horror movies in daylight. Santana Lopez is one badass motherfucker when she has to deal with any kinds of living beings. Heck, she was ready to cut Karoffsky only armed with a razor hidden in her hair (allegedly). She just can't deal with things that are not able to be seen or touched.

"I'm _not _going. You can go Fabray yourself. You're crazy. Sane people go to clubs at night. Not abandoned sanatoriums", Santana folds her hands in defiance trying to look unfazed.

"You can choose our next activity if you go with me tonight", Quinn tries to buy her way.

"Why would I even want to _choose_ an activity? Why can't we just chill here for the whole week?"

Quinn takes a breath. "Because I know you, Santana. And you are not able to sit still. So before I let you drag me to all kind of unsavory activities, I want you to earn it."

There is a silent moment and both girls are staring at each other almost like trying to change the other's girl mind only by pure will, as if whoever breaks eye contact loses. Elaine doesn't even want to move, afraid of changing the intense atmosphere she is vastly enjoying in front of her.

Santana finally clears her throat. "I'll go only if I have the veto of all the activities for the next week", she bargains.

Quinn raises her fingers, "Two activities. You can veto two of my ideas and that's it. Because if you're not agreeing to this, all I have to do is put up a status on facebook saying that Santana Marie Lopez is actually has a phasmaphobia."

Santana makes a face."What the face-what phobia, dork?"

"A wuss. A fucking wussy weakling chicken, wimpy scaredy cat, softy namby pamby bird", Quinn raises her phone and makes a gesture as if she's ready to type.

"I am not! And put that goddamn phone down you sadistic freak", Santana snaps the moment she hears the word "softy" and tries to snatch Quinn's phone. Only when she is able to grab Quinn's hand, the blonde yanks it back and she loses her balance over the stool. Quinn quickly grabs Santana's hand for balance and they end up holding each other hands close to their chest with faces only inches apart.

Silence fills the room. The two girls stare at each other, before a shutter sound brings them back from their catatonic state and notice Elaine looking down at her phone, "That's actually a pretty nice picture. Hey, you can use this as your first Christmas card together", Elaine comments before she manages to run away from an angry Latina.


End file.
